Золотурн: История и архитектура швейцарского города

Place in Switzerland

Solothurn ('/s//oʊ//l//ə//t//ʊər//n//, /'/z//oʊ// / SOHlətoorn, ZOH , ; sɔlœʁ; soˈletta; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains. The town is the only municipality of the district of the same name. The town got its name from Salodurum, a Roman era settlement. From 1530 to 1792 it was the seat of the French ambassador to Switzerland. The pedestrian only old town was built between 1530 and 1792 and shows an impressive array of Baroque architecture, combining Italian Grandezza, French style, and Swiss ideas. The town has eighteen structures listed as heritage sites. The official language of Solothurn is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.

The oldest finds from Solothurn probably date from the Paleolithic era. The remains of a Mesolithic camp were discovered in 1986 during renovations of the former Kino Elite building. From the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age, only a few scattered items have been discovered.

The Roman settlement at Solothurn was probably built around AD 15–25 as a road station and bridge head on the road from Aventicum to Augusta Raurica or Vindonissa. A small vicus or settlement quickly developed around the castrum. Solothurn is first mentioned in 219 as vico salod[uro] It came to be known as Salodurum, this name believed to derive from a Celtic language, possibly meaning "Salo's fort," from the personal name Salo + Proto Celtic *dūnom, meaning "fort" or "stronghold," likely influenced by the Latin durus, meaning "hard" or "strong," as in other place names. Its strategical importance lay in the position at the approach to the Rhine from southeast. In the 2nd–3rd century AD, the vicus expanded rapidly to fill almost all of what is now the old town of Solothurn, including a portion of today's suburb south of the Aare.

In the Early Middle Ages there were two settlement centres, a secular settlement in the former castrum and a religious settlement on the grounds of the late Roman cemeteries outside the walls. Both the religious histories and archeological discoveries indicate that both areas remained inhabited continuously into the Early Middle Ages. The former chapel of St. Stephen inside the castrum was built on the foundation of an earlier, late Roman building. A burial memorial in the cemetery of the nearby St. Peter's Chapel dates to around the collapse of the Roman Empire. By the middle of the 5th century, St. Eucherius of Lyon mentions the martyrdom of St. Ursus and St. Victor and a cult of saints in Solothurn. About 500 AD, the Burgundian Princess Sedeleuba took the bones of St. Victor to Geneva, while the bones of St. Ursus remained in Solothurn. The church dedicated to the veneration of Saint Ursus is first mentioned in 870. In 1251 it was mentioned as saluerre and in 1275 as Solotren. Until the pogrom on 1348 during an outbreak of the plague, there was a small Jewish community in Solothurn. Over the 13th to 15th centuries, the citizens of the city slowly emancipated themselves from the higher nobility. In 1276 and 1280 Emperor Rudolf I codified the previously poorly defined rights of the city and granted it the privilege de non Evocando or the right that their citizens were protected from trial in foreign courts. In 1344 Solothurn acquired the right to appoint their own Schultheiss from the Count of Buchegg, which was confirmed by Emperor Charles IV in 1360. In 1409, Emperor Ruprecht extended the de non Evocando privilege to include the royal High Court as well.

The medieval cooperative election of the mayor and councillors led to the creation of a nearly hereditary oligarchy by the 15th century. By the second half of the 16th century, the political voice of citizens was nearly totally suppressed. By the second half of the 17th century, the government was run by a small group of patricians. The oligarchs were weakened in the 18th century, when in 1718–21 the city council managed to regain some powers. However, in 1682, a new citizenship law prevented wealthy families who had moved into Solothurn from becoming members of the council. While this law reduced the number of people who could be on the city council, the introduction of a secret ballot procedure in 1764 and measures against vote buying in 1774 allowed more and more non patrician burghers to join the council. In 1828 Solothurn became the seat of the Bishop of Basel. Since 1897, the municipal council has been elected by proportional voting and consists of 30 members and 15 alternate members. As the executive body, it elects the council commission (seven members). Mayor and Vice Mayor are elected by the people. The municipal assembly is the legislative body. The composition of the council remained remarkably stable between 1917 and 1973. The Liberals held an average of 60% of the seats, the Social Democrats and the Conservative People's Party (CVP today), about 20% each. In 1970, the municipality granted voting rights for women. With the emergence of new parties, the Liberals lost its dominant position. 2009, the FDP 30%, SP 23%, CVP 23%, the Greens 17% and 7% of the votes go to the SVP. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 4.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 38.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 17.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.9% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 7.5%. Out of the forested land, 0.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 14.2% is used for growing crops and 7.0% is pastures, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess Gules and Argent.

Solothurn has a population of as of 2008, 21.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 4.4%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (13,270 or 85.7%), with Italian being second most common (469 or 3.0%) and Albanian being third (261 or 1.7%). There are 193 people who speak French and 19 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality 3,864 or about 24.9% were born in Solothurn and lived there in 2000. There were 3,630 or 23.4% who were born in the same canton, while 4,135 or 26.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 3,193 or 20.6% were born outside of Switzerland. as of 2000, there were 6,784 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 6,403 married individuals, 1,144 widows or widowers and 1,158 individuals who are divorced. as of 2000, there were 7,447 private households in the municipality, and an average of 1.9 persons per household. In 2000 there were 8,586 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 2,954. There were 728 single room apartments and 1,634 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 7,272 apartments (84.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 794 apartments (9.2%) were seasonally occupied and 520 apartments (6.1%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2010, was 0.45%.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 24.09% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (23.53%), the Green Party (18.56%) and the CVP (17.19%). In the federal election, a total of 5,767 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 53.8%.

as of 2010, Solothurn had an unemployment rate of 4.6%. as of 2008, there were 22 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 2,587 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 178 businesses in this sector. 14,381 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 1,226 businesses in this sector. In 2000, there were 13,529 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,598 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 3.8 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 20.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 40.3% used a private car. During that school year, there were Schülerbestand children in kindergarten. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In the municipality there were 2010–2011 students in primary school. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower secondary students from Solothurn attend their school in a neighboring municipality. as of 2000, there were 2,517 students in Solothurn who came from another municipality, while 188 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

FC Solothurn is the town's football club.

Solothurn has a special affinity for the number eleven. The Canton of Solothurn was the eleventh to become part of the Swiss Confederation. There are eleven churches and chapels, as well as eleven historical fountains and eleven towers. The St. Ursus cathedral has eleven altars and eleven bells, and the stairs in front of the cathedral have landings after every eleven steps. A local brewery has named itself Öufi, which is Swiss German for eleven, and produces a beer with the same name.