Ipsach

Geschichte

Ipsach is a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.HistoryIpsach is first mentioned around 1265-66 as Ipzacho.The area around Ipsach was often settled during the neolithic, Bronze Age and Hallstatt eras. The former bogs and peat moss near the village is full of prehistoric artifacts. During the Roman era, there was a small town near what is now Oberdorf-Buchseefeld and the remains of a Roman road to Petinesca has been discovered in the Ipsachmoos. By the Late Middle Ages there were two settlements in the area, the farm of Ipsach and the settlement of Wiler. The settlements were part of the Herrschaft of Nidau but St. Alban's Monastery in Basel also owned land and rights in Ipsach. In 1335, the owner of the Herrschaft, the Knight Cuno von Sutz sold Ipsach and Wiler to the Counts of Neuchâtel-Nidau. Ownership of the settlements were inherited by the town of Fribourg in 1382 and then passed to Bern in 1398. Under Bernese rule, Ipsach and Wiler were part of the bailiwick of Nidau. Over the following centuries the population of Wiler shrunk and by 1551 it was listed as just a farm. Soon thereafter it was completely abandoned and fell into ruin.