Gelterkinden

Geschichte

Gelterkinden is a municipality in the district of Sissach in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.HistoryGelterkinden is first mentioned between 1101 - 03 as Gelterkingen.GeographyGelterkinden has an area, of 9.79km2. Of this area, 3.35km2 or 34.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 4.64km2 or 47.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.78km2 or 18.2% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03km2 or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.02km2 or 0.2% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 10.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.2%. Out of the forested land, 45.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 12.7% is used for growing crops and 17.8% is pastures, while 3.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.The municipality is located in the Sissach district. The main village is located in the upper Ergolz valley at the confluence of the Ergolz and Eibach. It consists of the village of Gelterkinden and more than 20 other settlements including Sommerau, which has its own train station.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Trierced per pale, Azure, Argent and Gules.DemographicsGelterkinden has a population of., 15.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 5.8%.