Ayent

Geschichte

Ayent is a municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.HistoryThe Ayent area is first mentioned in 1052 as Agent. In 1250 it was mentioned as Argenta.GeographyAyent has an area, of 55.1km2. Of this area, 10.42km2 or 18.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 13.35km2 or 24.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.55km2 or 4.6% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.75km2 or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and 27.97km2 or 50.7% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. Out of the forested land, 20.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.5% is used for growing crops and 5.2% is pastures, while 3.2% is used for orchards or vine crops and 10.0% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 1.1% is in lakes and 0.2% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 8.2% is unproductive vegetation, 39.6% is too rocky for vegetation and 3.0% of the land is covered by glaciers.The municipality is located on a high terrace on the right side of the Rhone river. It consists of the villages and hamlets of Botyre, Luc, Saxonne, La Place, Blignou, Fortunau, Saint-Romain, Signèse, Villa, Argnou and the tourist development of Anzère (which was built in 1969). There is no Ayent village in the municipality.The reservoir Lac de Tseuzier is located on the border with Icogne.