Bellwald

Geschichte

Bellwald is a municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.HistoryBellwald was first used to refer to the nearby mountain 1273 Beliwalt and 1293 Belwalt. The name then came to mean the main village below the mountain. The village was first mentioned in 1374 as Zblattun.GeographyBellwald has an area, of 13.7km2. Of this area, 49.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 19.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and 26.2% is unproductive land.It lies at 1600m and is the highest village in Goms, or the upper Rhône River valley.The municipality consists of scattered settlements between the Rhone and Fiescher valley. It consists of the village of Bellwald and the hamlets of Ried, Eggen, Bodmen and Fürgangen.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, issuant from Coupeaux Vert a Pine tree of the same trunked Maroon.DemographicsBellwald has a population of., 15.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -6.5%. It has changed at a rate of -3.3% due to migration and at a rate of 2.4% due to births and deaths.Most of the population speaks German (375 or 87.8%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (16 or 3.7%) and Albanian is the third (12 or 2.8%). There are 3 people who speak French, 1 person who speaks Italian.