Сиер – күн қаласы және Валлис округінің орталығы

the district

Sierre (sjɛʁ; Siders, ; , ) is the capital municipality of the district of Sierre, located in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It has a population of 16,332. Sierre is nicknamed City of the Sun for its average of 300 days of sunshine a year. It is the last official French speaking city in Valais before the French–German language border of the canton located at the forêt de Finges, a few kilometres after the town. A German speaking minority lives in Sierre, counting for around 8% of the population.

Sierre was first mentioned around 800 as Sidrium, though a 12th century document refers to the village being founded in 515. In 1179 it was mentioned as Sirro and in 1393 as Syder. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 5.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 10.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 10.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 4.0% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.4%. Out of the forested land, 18.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.9% is used for growing crops and 2.5% is pastures, while 25.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 1.3% is in lakes and 5.5% is in rivers and streams.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a Sun in Splendour Or. The coat of arms is depicted (uncolorised) in the Schalbetter map (printed in 1545 by Sebastian Münster, Basel).

Sierre has a population of as of 2008, 27.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 12.3%. It has changed at a rate of 11.9% due to migration and at a rate of 0% due to births and deaths. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks French (10,710 or 74.8%) as their first language, German is the second most common (1,803 or 12.6%) and Italian is the third (765 or 5.3%). There are 6 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 5,363 or about 37.5% were born in Sierre and lived there in 2000. There were 3,705 or 25.9% who were born in the same canton, while 1,412 or 9.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 3,273 or 22.9% were born outside of Switzerland. as of 2000, there were 6,016 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. as of 2009, the construction rate of new housing units was 3.4 new units per 1,000 residents.

The Centrale Électrique et Bâtiments Alusuisse (Power station and buildings of the Alusuisse company) is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire Sierre town and surrounding are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Sierre is host to a local wine museum (Musée Valaisan de la Vigne et du Vin) and of a museum dedicated to the memory of Rainer Maria Rilke who lived there until his death and is buried in the nearby town of Raron.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 34.23% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (19.19%), the FDP (17.78%) and the SVP (16.92%). In the federal election, a total of 5,203 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 57.3%. In the 2009 Conseil d'Etat/Staatsrat election a total of 4,904 votes were cast, of which 330 or about 6.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 54.4%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 5,130 votes were cast, of which 498 or about 9.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 57.4%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 59.88%.

as of 2010, Sierre had an unemployment rate of 5%. as of 2008, there were 195 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 62 businesses involved in this sector. 2,654 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 145 businesses in this sector. 6,607 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 729 businesses in this sector. In 2000, there were 4,257 workers who commuted into the municipality and 2,470 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.7 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 10.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 63% used a private car.

From the 2000 census, 11,139 or 77.8% were Roman Catholic, while 715 or 5.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 359 members of an Orthodox church (or about 2.51% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.02% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 310 individuals (or about 2.17% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 individuals (or about 0.03% of the population) who were Jewish, and 430 (or about 3.00% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 31 individuals who were Buddhist, 8 individuals who were Hindu, and 25 individuals who belonged to another church. 636 (or about 4.44% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 805 individuals (or about 5.62% of the population) did not answer the question.

In Sierre about 4,610 or (32.2%) of the population have completed non mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,576 or (11.0%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 1,576 who completed tertiary schooling, 58.1% were Swiss men, 28.0% were Swiss women, 7.6% were non Swiss men and 6.3% were non Swiss women. During that school year, there 2 kindergarten classes (KG1 or KG2) and 31 kindergarten students. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school. In Sierre there were a total of 8 classes and 149 students in the primary school. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling (orientation classes), followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower and upper secondary students from Sierre attend their school in a neighboring municipality. as of 2000, there were 1,077 students in Sierre who came from another municipality, while 517 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

HC Sierre plays in the Swiss League, the second tier of Swiss ice hockey, as Genève Servette HC's affiliate. They play their home games in the 4,500 seat Graben Arena.