Eriswil

Geschichte

Eriswil is a municipality in the Emmental administrative district in the Swiss canton of Bern.HistoryEriswil is first mentioned in 1256 as Erolzwile.Very little is known about the early history of the village. By the High Middle Ages a local noble family, the von Eriswil family, were a Ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) family in service to the Counts of Kyburg. However, the family died out in the 14th century. In the last quarter of the 14th century the region was acquired by St. Gallen and incorporated into the Rohrbach district. Over the following century, Bernese expansion brought Rohrbach under Bern's control. In 1504 it bought the entire region and added Eriswil to the Trachselwald bailiwick in the Oberaargau District.The village church was originally under the authority of the Abbey of Saint Gall. It appears that the oldest part of the church is the bell tower which dates from around the 14th century. The current choir was built in the 16th century, while the nave was built in 1905. In 1528 Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and Eriswil converted at that time, severing most ties with the Abbey. Until 1966 the local parish also included the nearby village of Wyssachen.