Biel-Benken

Geschichte

Biel-Benken is a municipality in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.HistoryBenken is first mentioned in 1259 as Beinkon. It was also known as Benken maior to distinguish it from Biel which was known as Benken minor, Buelbenken or Benken inferior.GeographyBiel-Benken has an area, of 4.12km2. Of this area, 2.22km2 or 53.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.82km2 or 19.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.04km2 or 25.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and 0.01km2 or 0.2% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 17.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.4%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.9%. Out of the forested land, 18.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 40.0% is used for growing crops and 6.1% is pastures, while 7.8% is used for orchards or vine crops.The municipality is located in the Arlesheim district, in the Leimen valley. It consists of the two villages of Biel and Benken, which are separated by the Birsig river. The two villages merged in 1972.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a bend lozengy ArgentDemographicsBiel-Benken has a population of., 11.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 25.5%.