Breitenbach

Geschichte

Breitenbach is a municipality in the district of Thierstein in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. There are two train stations near Breitenbach, the main being in Laufen and the other in Zwingen. As with most of Switzerland, there are Postauto buses which take people to surrounding cities and to and from the train station. Schweizerdeutsch (Swiss-German) in Breitenbach closely resembles that of Baseldeutsch (Basel-German).HistoryBreitenbach is first mentioned in 1152 as Breitenbach.GeographyBreitenbach has an area, of 6.8km2. Of this area, 3.14km2 or 46.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.34km2 or 34.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.32km2 or 19.4% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02km2 or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01km2 or 0.1% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 11.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.4%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 32.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 26.6% is used for growing crops and 17.4% is pastures, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.The municipality is the capital of the Thierstein district and the Dorneck-Thierstein district. It is located on the Passwang Pass road at the entrance to the Gilgenbergerland area. It consists of the village of Breitenbach and the former parish center of Rohr.