Gempen

Geschichte

Gempen is a municipality in the district of Dorneck in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.HistoryGempen is first mentioned in 1277 as Gempenon.GeographyGempen has an area, of 6km2. Of this area, 3.14km2 or 52.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.45km2 or 40.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.38km2 or 6.3% is settled (buildings or roads).Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.5%. Out of the forested land, 38.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 25.5% is used for growing crops and 19.2% is pastures, while 7.7% is used for orchards or vine crops.The municipality is located in the Dorneck district, on the eastern edge of the Schartenfluh and Gempenfluh. It consists of the village of Gempen and the hamlets of Gempenstollen, Schönmatt and Baumgarten.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Hand with three fingers raised Argent sleeved Gules issuant from base.DemographicsGempen has a population of., 15.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 16.1%.Most of the population speaks German (702 or 94.0%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common (12 or 1.6%) and French being third (10 or 1.3%).