Chalais (Valais)

Geschichte

Chalais is a municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.HistoryChalais is first mentioned in the 11th century as Jaler. In 1425 it was mentioned as Challir.In 1892 much of the village was destroyed in a fire.GeographyChalais has an area, of 24.5km2. Of this area, 4.65km2 or 19.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 16.55km2 or 67.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.07km2 or 8.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02km2 or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and 1.16km2 or 4.7% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.9%. Out of the forested land, 64.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.4% is used for growing crops and 4.3% is pastures, while 4.7% is used for orchards or vine crops and 9.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 3.0% is unproductive vegetation and 1.8% is too rocky for vegetation.The municipality is located in the Sierre district, on the left side of the Rhone river. It consists of the villages of Chalais and Réchy on the edge of the valley along with Brie and Vercorin on a terrace in the mountains.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent, between a Cross pattee Vert overall four Mullets of Five Gules.