Corgémont
Corgémont is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking part of the canton in the Jura mountains. Corgémont was first mentioned in 1178 as Coriamont. In 1179 Pope Alexander III confirmed the rights of the Abbey of Moutier-Grandval to their property in Corgémont. From the 12th to 15th century much of the village was owned by the noble family de Corgémont, who had received the property from the Prince-Bishop of Basel; this property was transferred to the Family d'Asuel. Corgémont belonged to the Barony of Erguel, under the Prince-Bishops. In 1530 Biel introduced the Reformation to Corgémont. Corgémont has an area of 17.66 km2. Of this area, 9.65 km2 or 54.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.81 km2 or 38.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.03 km2 or 5.8% is settled, 0.06 km2 or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.02 km2 or 0.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area and buildings made up 2.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%.
Out of the forested land, 33.3% of the total land area is forested and 5.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 14.8% is used for growing crops and 15.3% is pastures and 24.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. On 31 December 2009 the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Arrondissement administratif Jura bernois; the blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Guidon Argent. Corgémont has a population of 1,668; as of 2010, 11.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 1.6%. Migration accounted for 2.5%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.7%. Most of the population speaks French as their first language, German is the second most common and Italian is the third. There are 3 people who speak Romansh; as of 2008, the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female.
The population was made up of 676 Swiss men and 95 non-Swiss men. There were 696 Swiss women and 81 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 446 or about 29.9% were born in Corgémont and lived there in 2000. There were 577 or 38.6% who were born in the same canton, while 239 or 16.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, 184 or 12.3% were born outside of Switzerland. As of 2010, children and teenagers make up 23.2% of the population, while adults make up 57.8% and seniors make up 19.1%. As of 2000, there were 567 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 768 married individuals, 83 widows or widowers and 75 individuals who are divorced; as of 2000, there were 141 households that consist of only one person and 38 households with five or more people. In 2000, a total of 585 apartments were permanently occupied, while 70 apartments were seasonally occupied and 39 apartments were empty; as of 2010, the construction rate of new housing units was 0.6 new units per 1000 residents.
The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2011, was 1.6%. The historical population is given in the following chart: The Bibliothèque De La Conférence Mennonite Suisse is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party which received 35.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party, the Green Party and the FDP; the Liberals. In the federal election, a total of 470 votes were cast, the voter turnout was 42.8%. As of 2011, Corgémont had an unemployment rate of 2.64%. As of 2008, there were a total of 579 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 84 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 28 businesses involved in this sector. 212 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 26 businesses in this sector. 283 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 44 businesses in this sector. There were 5 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 20.0% of the workforce.
In 2008 there were a total of 485 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 55, of which 54 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production; the number of jobs in the secondary sector was 195 of which 164 or were in manufacturing and 31 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 235. In the tertiary sector. In 2000, there were 210 workers who commuted into the municipality and 454 workers who commuted away; the municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 2.4% of the workforce coming into Corgémont are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 12.7% used public transportation to get to work, 59.9% used a private car. From the 2000 census, 340 or 22.8% were Roman Catholic, while 798 or 53.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there wer
Prince-Bishopric of Basel
The Prince-Bishopric of Basel was an ecclesiastical principality within the Holy Roman Empire, ruled from 1032 by Prince-Bishops with their seat at Basel, from 1528 until 1792 at Porrentruy, thereafter at Schliengen. The final dissolution of the state occurred in 1803 as part of the German Mediatisation; the Prince-Bishopric comprised territories now in the Swiss cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Jura and Bern, besides minor territories in nearby portions of southern Germany and eastern France. The city of Basel ceased to be part of the Prince-Bishopric after it joined the Swiss Confederacy in 1501; the city of Basel became. 740, continuing the 4th century diocese of Augusta Raurica. In 999, Rudolph III of Burgundy presented the bishop of Basel with the Abbey of Moutier-Grandval, establishing the bishopric as a secular vassal state of Burgundy with feudal authority over significant territories. After the death of Rudolph in 1032, the vassalage was converted to imperial immediacy, elevating the Bishop of Basel to the status of Prince-Bishop, ranking as an ecclesiastical Reichsfurst of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Prince-Bishopric reached the peak of its power during the late 12th to early 14th centuries. In the course of the 14th century, financial difficulties forced the bishops of Basel to sell parts of their territory. During the 15th century, however, a number of politically and militarily successful bishops managed to regain some of the lost territories and Basel began to align itself with the Old Swiss Confederacy as an "associated city". Basel became the focal point of western Christendom during the 15th century Council of Basel, including the 1439 election of antipope Felix V. In 1459 Pope Pius II endowed the University of Basel where such notables as Erasmus of Rotterdam and Paracelsus taught. Following the Imperial Reform of 1495, the prince-bishopric was part of the Upper Rhenish Circle of the Imperial Circle Estates. In the 16th century the city of Basel and its surrounding territory acceded to the Old Swiss Confederacy as the Canton of Basel, it soon joined the Swiss Reformation. The secular rule of the Prince-Bishops from this time was limited to territories west of Basel, more or less corresponding to the modern canton of Jura.
The Prince-Bishopric lost most of its remaining territories to the Rauracian Republic in 1792, retaining Schliengen as its sole dominion. Schliengen was made part of the Margraviate of Baden in the resolution of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, discontinuing the status of the bishops of Basel as secular rulers. By the 16th century, the Prince-Bishopric of Basel comprised: The Prince-Bishopric held the following territories, which were lost before 1527: Landgraviate of Buchsgau Landgraviate of Sisgau Barony of Valangin List of bishops of Basel History of Basel Prince-Bishopric of Basel in German and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
Balsthal
Balsthal is a municipality in the district of Thal in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. Balsthal is first mentioned in 968 as Palcivallis. In 1255 it was mentioned as Balcetal. Balsthal has an area, as of 2009, of 15.71 square kilometers. Of this area, 4.62 km2 or 29.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 8.53 km2 or 54.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.26 km2 or 14.4% is settled, 0.1 km2 or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and 0.18 km2 or 1.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 7.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.6%. Out of the forested land, 53.1% of the total land area is forested and 1.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.4% is used for growing crops and 19.7% is pastures and 2.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water; the municipality is located in the Thal district. It was a market town and administrative center for the Oberen Hauenstein.
It consists of the village of Balsthal, the industrial settlement of Klus and the hamlets of Sankt Wolfgang. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure two Snakes Argent in saltire bowed embowed reguardant. Balsthal has a population of 6,094; as of 2008, 28.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has changed at a rate of 1.7%. Most of the population speaks German, with Albanian being second most common and Italian being third. There are 40 people who speak French and 2 people who speak Romansh; as of 2008, the gender distribution of the population was 51.0% male and 49.0% female. The population was made up of 1,993 Swiss men and 962 non-Swiss men. There were 2,032 Swiss women and 802 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 2,040 or about 36.6% were born in Balsthal and lived there in 2000. There were 1,179 or 21.2% who were born in the same canton, while 1,006 or 18.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, 1,156 or 20.7% were born outside of Switzerland.
In 2008 there were 29 live births to Swiss citizens and 30 births to non-Swiss citizens, in same time span there were 39 deaths of Swiss citizens and 6 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 10 while the foreign population increased by 24. There were 15 Swiss men and 9 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 56 non-Swiss men and 25 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland; the total Swiss population change in 2008 was a decrease of 34 and the non-Swiss population increased by 87 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.9%. The age distribution, as of 2000, in Balsthal is. Of the adult population, 300 people or 5.4% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 1,681 people or 30.2% are between 25 and 44, 1,295 people or 23.2% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 651 people or 11.7% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 270 people or 4.8% who are over 80.
As of 2000, there were 2,237 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,693 married individuals, 381 widows or widowers and 263 individuals who are divorced; as of 2000, there were 2,232 private households in the municipality, an average of 2.4 persons per household. There were 677 households that consist of only one person and 165 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 2,282 households that answered this question, 29.7% were households made up of just one person and there were 16 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 655 married couples without children, 744 married couples with children There were 120 single parents with a child or children. There were 20 households that were made up of unrelated people and 50 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. In 2000 there were 962 single family homes out of a total of 1,417 inhabited buildings. There were 256 multi-family buildings, along with 113 multi-purpose buildings that were used for housing and 86 other use buildings that had some housing.
Of the single family homes 85 were built before 1919, while 92 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes were built between 1919 and 1945. In 2000 there were 2,454 apartments in the municipality; the most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 731. There were 108 single room apartments and 835 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 2,179 apartments were permanently occupied, while 126 apartments were seasonally occupied and 149 apartments were empty; as of 2009, the construction rate of new housing units was 1.9 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2010, was 1.02%. The historical population is given in the following chart: The ruins of Neu-Falkenstein Castle is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance; the entire town of Balsthal and the Factories of the Innere Klus are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 30.03% of the vote.
The next three
Moutier
Moutier is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura. Moutier is first mentioned in 1154 as datum Monasterii. In 1181 it was mentioned as apud Monasterium; the German name for the town is Münster, but it is not used. The area was settled before the founding of Moutier-Grandval Abbey around 640. Much of the early history of the village is connected with the Abbey. Between 1049 and 1150 the Abbey was granted a stift or land donation to support the college of canons; the stift allowed the Abbey to grow into a regional power. The village church of Saint-Pierre, which became a parish church, was built during the Early Middle Ages. In the 12th century another monastery was founded in Moutier, but it was destroyed in a fire in 1269. In addition to the Church of Saint-Pierre, the collegiate church of Saint-Germain and Saint-Randoald was built in Moutier during the 12th century. Everything changed in Moutier after the Protestant Reformation was accepted by Bern in 1531.
The Abbey closed and the college of canons relocated to Delémont. The church of Saint-Germain and Saint-Randoald was closed while the church of Saint-Pierre converted to the new faith and was expanded. A fire destroyed the church of Saint-Germain and Saint-Randoald in 1571 though in 1860-63 a Reformed church was built on the site; the church of Saint-Pierre was demolished in 1873. Today Moutier has both French speaking churches. After the college of canons of the Abbey moved to Delémont, the Abbey's properties in and around Moutier fell under the Prince-Bishop of Basel; the Bishop appointed a provost to manage the Abbey's estates and around the end of the 16th century, built the Provost's Castle. The provost remained in Moutier until 1797. After the 1797 French victory and the Treaty of Campo Formio, Moutier became part of the French Département of Mont-Terrible. Three years in 1800 it became part of the Département of Haut-Rhin. After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, Moutier was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815.
Two years in 1817, the Canton of Bern acquired the castle and used it as the seat of the district governor. During the 19th century and early 20th century, Moutier developed into a transportation hub. In 1876 a railway opened between Moutier; this first railroad was followed by a route to Biel through the Tavannes valley in 1877 and to Solothurn in 1908. In 1915 the 8.6 kilometers long Grenchenberg tunnel connected Moutier and Grenchen. The extensive road and railroad network encouraged Moutier to industrialize, with three industries, glass-making and automatic lathes, gaining international recognition for Moutier. In 1842 Célestin Châtelain founded the Verrerie de Moutier glass factory, they became the most important window glass manufacturer in Switzerland and by the 1970s produced 250 tons of glass per month to meet Swiss domestic demand. The conversion from glass rolling to float glass spelled the end of the old Moutier glass factory, it closed in 1978. However, a subsidiary, Verres Industriels SA, had been created in 1955 and they began producing glass with the new process.
Today Verres Industriels employs about 200 people. Watchmaking first spread throughout the Jura region as a cottage industry during the 19th century. In the late 19th century the Grande Fabrique was built in Moutier and by 1880 employed about 500 workers. A number of watchmakers opened factories in the town, of which Léon Lévy & Frères and Louis Schwab were some of the largest. However, many of Moutier's independent watchmakers went bankrupt and were forced to close during the Great Depression; those that survived this period were absorbed by ETA SA in the 1950s. In 1883 Nicolas Junker founded the Junker & Cie company to manufacture automatic lathes with a moveable headstock. After a bankruptcy and several name changes the company became Usines Tornos, Fabrique de machines Moutier SA in 1918. In 1968 Tornos bought the Pétermann SA company to become Tornos Pétermann, they merged in 1974 with Bechler SA to become Moutier Machines Holding, which became Tornos-Bechler SA in 1981. It was renamed to Tornos SA in 2001.
Over its nearly a century in operation, Usines Tornos built workers' housing, provided jobs and vocational training and helped drive Moutier's growth. At its peak in 1974, the company employed about 3,000 people. Between 1980 and 2000, the company acquired and sold off several companies and reduced its headcount to about 1300 in 2001. In 2010 the company employed 855 people, including 655 in Moutier. In 1950, Moutier became a number of construction projects followed. A swimming pool opened in that same year. In 1955 a second primary school opened along with a new building for the secondary school. A new train station opened in 1961. In 1962 the old secondary school was converted into a town hall. A primary school in Chantemerle opened in 1973 and a new district hospital was built in 1976. There are two museums in town, the villa Bechler with the Jurassic Museum of Arts and the villa Junker with the Museum of Automatic Lathes. Politically, the issue of Jurassic separatism is a major issue in Moutier.
In 1974 a plebiscite voted to remain part of Bern by a margin of only 70 votes. This led to acts of vandalism on 16 March 1974 and on 7 September 1975 an armed standoff at the Hôtel de la Gare, broken up by an elite team of Bernese police on the following day. Two other plebiscites came down on the side of remaining in the Canton of Bern, including one in 1998 which passed with a thin majority of 41 votes. In 2013 a third plebiscite ended with the majority of residents choosing to remain
Benefice
A benefice or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term beneficium as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered, its use was adopted by the Western Church in the Carolingian Era as a benefit bestowed by the crown or church officials. A benefice from a church is called a precaria such as a stipend and one from a monarch or nobleman is called a fief. A benefice is distinct from an allod, in that an allod is property owned outright, not bestowed by a higher authority. In ancient Rome a benefice was a gift of land for life as a reward for services rendered to the state; the word comes from the Latin noun beneficium, meaning "benefit". In the 8th century, using their position as Mayor of the Palace, Charles Martel, Carloman I and Pepin II usurped a large number of church benefices for distribution to vassals, Carolingians continued this practice as emperors; these estates were held in return for oaths of military assistance, which aided the Carolingians in consolidating and strengthening their power.
Charlemagne continued the late Roman concept of granting benefices in return for military and administrative service to his empire. Thus, the imperial structure was bound together through a series of oaths between the monarch and the recipient of land, he ordered and administered his kingdom and his empire through a series of published statutes called capitularies. The Capitulary of Herstal distinguished between his vassals who were styled casati and non-casati, those subjects who had received a benefice from the hand of the king and those who had not, towards the end of Charlemagne's reign it appears that a royal vassal who had satisfactorily fulfilled his duties could always look forward to the grant of a benefice in some part of the Empire. Once he had received a benefice, he would take up his residence on it. In the year 800 Pope Leo III placed the crown of Holy Roman Emperor on the head of Charlemagne; this act caused great turmoil for future generations, who would afterward argue that the emperor thereby received his position as a benefice from the papacy.
In his March 1075 Dictatus Papae, Pope Gregory VII declared that only the pope could depose an emperor, which implied that he could do so just as a lord might take a benefice away from a vassal. This declaration inflamed Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and furthered the friction caused in the Investiture Conflict; the expanded practice continued through the Middle Ages within the European feudal system. This same customary method became adopted by the Catholic Church; the church's revenue streams came from, amongst other things and profits arising from assets gifted to the church, its endowment, given by believers, be they monarch, lord of the manor or vassal, also upon tithes calculated on the sale of the product of the people's personal labour in the entire parish such as cloth or shoes and the people's profits from specific forms of God-given, natural increase such as crops and in livestock. The Catholic Church granted buildings, grants of land and greater and/or lesser tithes for life but the land was not alienated from the dioceses.
However the Council of Lyons of 566 annexed these grants to the churches. By the time of the Council of Mainz of 813 these grants were known as beneficia. Holding a benefice did not imply a cure of souls although each benefice had a number of spiritual duties attached to it. For providing these duties, a priest would receive "temporalities". Benefices were used for the worldly support of much of its pastoral clergy – clergy gaining rewards for carrying out their duties with rights to certain revenues, the "fruits of their office"; the original donor of the temporalities or his nominee, the patron and his successors in title, held the advowson. Parish priests were charged with the temporal care of their congregation; the community provided for the priest as necessary as organisation improved, by tithe. Some individual institutions within the church accumulated enormous endowments and, with that, temporal power; these endowments sometimes concentrated great wealth in the "dead hand" of the church, so called because it endured beyond any individual's life.
The church was exempt from all taxes. This was in contrast to feudal practice where the nobility would hold land on grant from the king in return for service service in war; this meant that the church over time gained a large share of land in many feudal states and so was a cause of increasing tension between the church and the Crown. The holder of more than one benefice known as a pluralist, could keep the revenue to which he was entitled and pay lesser sums to deputies to carry out the corresponding duties. By a Decree of the Lateran Council of 1215 no clerk could hold two benefices with cure of souls, if a beneficed clerk took a second benefice with cure of souls, he vacated ipso facto his first benefice. Dispensations, could be obtained from Rome; the benefice system was open to abuse. Acquisitive prelates held multiple major benefices; the holding of more than one benefice is termed pluralism. An Engli
Alsace
Alsace is a cultural and historical region in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. From 1982 to 2016, Alsace was the smallest administrative région in metropolitan France, consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Territorial reform passed by the French legislature in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est. Alsatian is an Alemannic dialect related to Swabian and Swiss German, although since World War II most Alsatians speak French. Internal and international migration since 1945 has changed the ethnolinguistic composition of Alsace. For more than 300 years, from the Thirty Years' War to World War II, the political status of Alsace was contested between France and various German states in wars and diplomatic conferences; the economic and cultural capital of Alsace, as well as its largest city, is Strasbourg. The city is the seat of bodies; the name "Alsace" can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz, meaning "foreign domain".
An alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass, meaning "seated on the Ill", a river in Alsace. In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters. By 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace and cultivating the land, it should be noted that Alsace is a plain surrounded by the Vosges mountains and the Black Forest mountains. It creates Foehn winds which, along with natural irrigation, contributes to the fertility of the soil. In a world of agriculture, Alsace has always been a rich region which explains why it suffered so many invasions and annexations in its history. By 58 BC, the Romans had established Alsace as a center of viticulture. To protect this valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania Superior. With the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni; the Alemanni were agricultural people, their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine.
Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac, Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis' Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized. Alsace remained under Frankish control until the Frankish realm, following the Oaths of Strasbourg of 842, was formally dissolved in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun. Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia, ruled by the eldest grandson Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts; the part known as Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was given to Lothar's son. The rest was shared between Louis the German; the Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the stem duchy of Swabia. At about this time, the surrounding areas experienced recurring fragmentation and reincorporations among a number of feudal secular and ecclesiastical lordships, a common process in the Holy Roman Empire.
Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors. Frederick I set up Alsace as a province to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants; the idea was that such men would be more tractable and less to alienate the fief from the crown out of their own greed. The province had a central administration with its seat at Hagenau. Frederick II designated the Bishop of Strasbourg to administer Alsace, but the authority of the bishop was challenged by Count Rudolf of Habsburg, who received his rights from Frederick II's son Conrad IV. Strasbourg began to grow to become the commercially important town in the region. In 1262, after a long struggle with the ruling bishops, its citizens gained the status of free imperial city. A stop on the Paris-Vienna-Orient trade route, as well as a port on the Rhine route linking southern Germany and Switzerland to the Netherlands and Scandinavia, it became the political and economic center of the region. Cities such as Colmar and Hagenau began to grow in economic importance and gained a kind of autonomy within the "Décapole", a federation of ten free towns.
As in much of Europe, the prosperity of Alsace came to an end in the 14th century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, the Black Death. These hardships were blamed on Jews, leading to the pogroms of 1336 and 1339. In 1349, Jews of Alsace were accused of poisoning the wells with plague, leading to the massacre of thousands of Jews during the Strasbourg pogrom. Jews were subsequently forbidden to settle in the town. An additional natural disaster was the Rhine rift earthquake of 1356, one of Europe's worst which made ruins of Basel. Prosperity returned to Alsace under Habsburg administration during the Renaissance. Holy Roman Empire central power had begun to decline following years of imperial adventures in Italian lands ceding hegemony in Western Europe to France, which had long since centralized power. France began an aggressive policy of expanding eastward, first to the riv
Col de Pierre Pertuis
Col de Pierre Pertuis is a mountain pass in the Jura Mountains in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It connects Tavannes; the name of the pass comes from the Latin: Petra pertusa. The pass road has been dated to the second half of the 1st century AD. A 159 by 96 centimetres large inscription on the north side of the road lists Marcus Dunius Paternus, the duumvir of the Helvetii Colony Aventicum, as the builder of the road; this inscription honors the emperor and dates to around 200 AD. It refers to the renovation and expansion of the existing road and the widening of the rocky gate leading into the pass; the pass road connected the Aventicum -Salodurum -Augusta Raurica road with the Vesontio -Epomanduodurum -Kembs road. The pass was first mentioned in a record from 1179 as the boundary between the dioceses of Lausanne and Basel, it remained the border between the powerful bishops until the Protestant Reformation. The first modern road was built in 1752 by the Abbot of Moutier-Grandval Abbey and the Vogt of Erguel.
This road linked the cities of Biel. After the 1797 French victory and the Treaty of Campo Formio, the pass became part of France. After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, the pass and the surrounding area were assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. Bern widened part of the pass road in a section between Courtelary. In 1874 a railway tunnel was completed through the pass which linked Tavannes; the tunnel is now part of the Sonceboz-Sombeval–Moutier railway. The first road, passable for automobiles was built during World War I by the corps of engineers of the Swiss Army. In 1932, a new road was built employing the jobless due to the Great Depression. In November 1997, a 2100-meter-long tunnel was opened for the A-16 Autobahn
