Gunzwil

Geschichte

Gunzwil was a municipality within the district of Sursee, in the canton of Lucerne, Switzerland. On 1 January 2009 it merged with the municipality of Beromünster, becoming a village inside the new municipality of Beromünster.HistoryGunzwil was first mentioned in 1036 as Gunczwilare, though the only existing document that mentions this is a 14th Century copy. In 1173 it was mentioned as in Gunzewile.GeographyGunzwil has an area of 23.2km2. Of this area, 78.5% was used for agricultural purposes, while 15% was forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.3% was settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.1%) was non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).The municipality was located between the Suren- and Seetal valleys. It consisted of the village of Gunzwil and numerous hamlets. Since 1 January 2009 it has been part of Beromünster. The merged municipality has an area of 29.35km2 and a population of 4,588 of which 10.1% are foreign.DemographicsGunzwil had a population of 1,875, of which 5.6% were foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -1.5%. Most of the population spoke German (94.9%), with Albanian second most common (2.2%), and Italian third (0.5%).In the 2007 election the most popular party was the CVP, which received 41.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (30.4%), the FDP (16.5%) and the Green Party (5.5%).