Roches, Switzerland
Roches
Roches is a municipality in the administrative district in the canton of Bern Bernese Jura in Switzerland.
Geography
Roches is located at 491 m above sea level. M., 3 km north-northeast of the town Moutier (air line). The village is located in a valley widening the Birs below the Gorges de Moutier, in the gap through the anticline of the Mont Raimeux chain of the Jura.
The area of 9.0 km ² large municipality comprises the strongly in relief area of the aperture of the Birs by an anticline of the Jura mountains. Today The hard limestone layers form distinctive rocky ridges, while the intervening softer clays and marls were more eroded, creating the Talweiten. In the east the territory extends to the height of Mont Raimeux on which to 1280m above sea level. M. the highest point of Roches is achieved. To the west, the area (M. 1'140 m above. ) M. extends to the plateau of the Montagne de Moutier, as well as on the Trondai (972 m above sea level. M. ) and the chain of Le Mont ( 1,129 m above sea level. ). The southern boundary runs along the ridge Arête you Raimeux and Belle Face; the northern border is on the crags of the Roche Saint -Jean and Côte des Porcs. From the municipality surface 1997 4 % came from settlements, 71 % of forest and shrubs, 24% to agriculture and slightly less than 1% was unproductive land.
At the hamlet of Hautes Roches Roches - include ( 733 m above sea level. M. ) on a ridge on the eastern slopes of the Montagne de Moutier high above the valley floor of the Birs and several individual farms. Neighboring communities of Roches are Moutier, Belprahon and Grandval in the canton of Bern and Rebeuvelier, Courrendlin, Vellerat and Châtillon in the canton of Jura.
Population
With 208 inhabitants ( 31 December 2012) Roches is one of the small communities of the Bernese Jura. Of the 81.8% inhabitants are French-speaking, 15.1 % German-speaking and Italian-speaking 1.3 % (as of 2000). The population of Roches amounted in 1850 to 277 residents in 1900 to 280 inhabitants. After peaking in 1970 with 323 residents since a marked decrease was recorded.
Economy
Roches has long been a dominantly agricultural village, but has developed in recent decades to residential. Since the end of the 18th century there was a mill on the River Birs. Nowadays there are more Roches some smaller companies. But many of the working commuters and work either in Moutier or in the region Delémont.
Traffic
The community is conveniently moderately well developed. It lies on the busy busy main road Delémont to Moutier. With the 3 km long Mont- Raimeux tunnel on the A16 motorway, which bypasses the gorges of Moutier, the through traffic is somewhat decreased. The A16 will connect the Swiss national road network with the French motorway network by 2015. On December 16, 1876, the Juratrain Delémont was dedicated to Moutier with a railway station in Roches. Today there but no trains stop more, the community is served by bus line Delémont - Moutier connected to the network of public transport.
History
The village was under until the end of the 18th century, the provost Moutier- Grandval. From 1797 to 1815 Roches belonged to France and was initially part of the Département du Mont- Terrible, which was connected to the 1800 Haut -Rhin. By the decision of the Congress of Vienna, the place came in 1815 to the canton of Bern to the district of Moutier.
Attractions
- In the center some classical building and storage timber from the 18th century are preserved. In the hamlet Hautes -Roches characteristic farmhouses dating from the 19th century form a unit.
- The archaeological trail at La Charbonnière ( Combe Chopin) leads near the site by the pre-industrial history of the Jura.