La Sonnaz

La Sonnaz

La Sonnaz is a municipality in the District de la Sarine ( German: Sarine district) of the Canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. It was formed with effect on 1 January 2004 from the previously independent municipalities of La Corbaz Cormagens and Lossy Formangueires. The seat of the municipality is located in Lossy.

Geography

La Sonnaz is about 4.5 km northwest of the capital of the canton of Fribourg (air line). The municipality covers with various villages on the slopes and in the wide valley of the lower Sonnaz in Molassehügelland of Fribourg Mittelland.

The area of ​​6.9 km ² large municipality area includes a portion of the Molassehöhen west of Schiffenen. The main part of the territory occupied by the wide valley, which is drained by the Sonnaz from southwest to northeast. The latter opens with the here Pensier in the Schiffenensee pent Sarine (French: Sarine ). North of the Sonnaz extends the communal land on the slopes of Lossy and La Corbaz on the forest heights Bois de la Corbaz (g 700 m. M. the highest point of La Sonnaz ) and in the Forêt Cantonale. In between is the valley cut Riaux. South of the river reaches the area on the adjacent plateaus of Granges- Paccot and at the forest edge of the Bois de la Faye (up to 640 m above sea level. M. ). To the east of this plateau falls in a crisscrossed partly of sandstone escarpment from the Schiffenensee, which forms the eastern boundary of the municipality. From the municipality surface 1997 6 % came from settlements, 23 % of forest and shrubs, 67% to agriculture and slightly more than 4% was unproductive land ( Seeanteil ).

La Sonnaz consists of several villages and settlements:

• Lossy, 609 m above sea level. M., on the northern flank of the Sonnaz and west of the little valley Riaux -
• Formangueires, 585 m above sea level. M., on the southern flank of the Sonnaz on a terrace
• La Corbaz, 648 m above sea level. M., on the northern flank of the Sonnaz and east of the little valley Riaux -
• Cormagens, 575 m above sea level. M., on the southern flank of the Sonnaz
• La Sonnaz, 536 m above sea level. M., at Pensier shortly before the mouth of the Sonnaz in the Schiffenensee

In addition, various individual farms belong to the community. Neighboring communities of La Sonnaz are Granges- Paccot, Givisiez, Belfaux, Courtion, Barberêche and Duedingen.

Population

With 1002 inhabitants ( 31 December 2012) La Sonnaz one of the smaller municipalities in the canton of Fribourg. Of the 88.6% inhabitants are French-speaking, German-speaking 9.1 % and 0.9 % speak Portuguese (as of 2000). The population of La Sonnaz amounted in 1900 to 422 inhabitants. After peaking in 1920 with 537 inhabitants, the population increased to 1970 by almost 30 % to 384 persons. Since then, a significant population growth was again associated with a doubling of the population recorded in 30 years.

Economy

La Sonnaz was until the second half of the 20th century, mainly coined by farming village. Even today, the farming, fruit growing and dairy farming and livestock have an important place in the economic structure of the population. More jobs are in small local manufacturing and services available, including a plant in Cormagens that manufactures plastic films, as well as in precision engineering workshops and in carpentry. In recent decades, the village has developed into a residential community. Many workers are therefore commuters who work mainly in the region of Freiburg.

Traffic

The community is located off the major thoroughfares on a road from Belfaux after Pensier. The nearest links to the motorway A12 ( Bern- Vevey) is located around 5 km from Lossy. Despite the proximity to the city of Freiburg, the community is not adequately connected to the public transport network. Although the railway line from Fribourg to Murten crosses the area, but does not stop. The nearest railway stations are Pensier ( for Cormagens ) and Belfaux ( for Lossy, Formangueires and La Corbaz ).

History

The municipality of La Sonnaz was inhabited very early. At Cormagens settlement traces a necropolis Thus, from the Mesolithic and Neolithic, at La Corbaz found from the Hallstatt period.

In the Middle Ages Cormagens made ​​a fief of the Counts of Thierstein, while the remaining villages were under the Lords of Englisberg. The Hauterive Abbey, the family Praroman and the Civil Hospital of Freiburg owned land and tithes in the area of La Sonnaz. By no later than 1442 were subject to the villages of the reign of Freiburg and the Old Landscape ( Spitalpanner ) have been assigned. After the collapse of the ancien régime (1798 ) included the villages of La Sonnaz during the Helvetic Republic and the subsequent time to the district of Freiburg, before they were incorporated in 1848 with the new cantonal constitution in the Sarine district. La Sonnaz belongs to the parish Belfaux.

As part of the canton of Fribourg funded since 2000 municipal mergers, the voters of Cormagens, La Corbaz and Lossy Formangueires decided on 20 May 2003 with a Yes majority of 78% on average for the merger of their communities. Effective on January 1, 2004, therefore, the fusion of the new municipality of La Sonnaz came into force.

Attractions

The Chapel of Saint- Théodule in Cormagens, which dates back to the 15th century, in 1844 moved to the village. Cormagens belongs to the parish Belfaux.

In Cormagens is also one of the last patrician country residences ( castle, lands, and forests) of the Canton of Fribourg. This has been one of the now two generations old Bernese family of Kilchenmann of Oberösch. Castle and furnace house date back to the 17th century.

Cormagens, La Sonnaz

St. Mary's Chapel in La La Corbaz Sonnaz