Himmelried

Geschichte

Himmelried is a municipality in the district of Thierstein in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.HistoryHimmelried is first mentioned in 1288 as in villa Heimenriet.GeographyHimmelried has an area, of 6km2. Of this area, 1.84km2 or 30.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 3.5km2 or 58.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.64km2 or 10.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01km2 or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01km2 or 0.2% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 7.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.3%. Out of the forested land, 56.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 4.8% is used for growing crops and 24.0% is pastures, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.The municipality is located in the Thierstein district, on the southern slope of Homberg mountain and above the Kaltbrunnen valley. It consists of the village of Himmelried and the hamlets of Steffen, Baumgarten and Schindelboden as well as scattered farm houses.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a Juniper Tree Vert issuant from a Mount of the same between two Mullets Gules.DemographicsHimmelried has a population of., 8.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -4.7%. It has changed at a rate of -4.2% due to migration and at a rate of 1.3% due to births and deaths.