Ferden

Geschichte

Ferden is a municipality in the district of Raron in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Besides the village of Ferden itself, the municipality includes the hamlet of Goppenstein, and the alpine settlements of Faldum, Resti and Kummen.HistoryFerden is first mentioned in 1380 as Verdan.GeographyFerden has an area, of 27.9km2. Of this area, 4.93km2 or 17.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 5.38km2 or 19.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.22km2 or 0.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.32km2 or 1.1% is either rivers or lakes and 17.05km2 or 61.1% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.5%. Out of the forested land, 14.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.3% is pastures and 16.4% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.4% is in lakes and 0.8% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 17.5% is unproductive vegetation, 41.8% is too rocky for vegetation and 1.8% of the land is covered by glaciers.The municipality is located in the Westlich Raron district. It is at the bottom of the Lötschen valley at an elevation of 1370m. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Ferden, the hamlet of Goppenstein, and the alpine settlements of Faldum, Resti and Kummen.Stausee Ferden is a reservoir on the Lonza River.