Alterswil

Geschichte

Alterswil is a municipality in the district of Sense in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. It is one of the municipalities with a large majority of German speakers in the mostly French speaking Canton of Fribourg.HistoryAlterswil is first mentioned in 1148 as Alterihcwilere. In 1228 it was mentioned as Vilar Altri.GeographyAlterswil has an area of. Of this area, 12.31km2 or 76.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.61km2 or 16.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.06km2 or 6.6% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.08km2 or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and 0.02km2 or 0.1% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 14.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 45.4% is used for growing crops and 29.4% is pastures, while 1.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.The municipality is located in the Sense district, about 10km east of Fribourg. It consists of the linear village of Alterswil and the surrounding settlements of Äckerli, Bennewil, Galtern, Gerewil, Heimberg, Wengliswil, Wilersgut, Wolgiswil, Zumholz and Zitterli.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a fleur de lis Argent.