Gelfingen

Geschichte

Gelfingen is a former municipality in the district of Hochdorf in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. On 1 January 2009 it became part of the municipality of Hitzkirch.HistoryGelfingen is first mentioned in 1045 as Gelvingun.GeographyGelfingen has an area of 3.9km2. Of this area, 64.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 25.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 9.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.3%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).The municipality is located below Schloss Heidegg on Lake Baldegg. On 21 May 2006 an attempt to merge the Hitzkirch and the surrounding 10 municipalities failed, when five of the eleven voted against the merger. A less ambitious merger was then proposed and accepted, with the municipalities of Gelfingen, Hämikon, Mosen, Müswangen, Retschwil and Sulz joining Hitzkirch.DemographicsGelfingen has a population of 764, of which 5.4% are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 20.3%. Most of the population speaks German (94.1%), with English being second most common ( 1.4%) and Portuguese being third ( 1.0%).