Mollens, Valais

Geschichte

Mollens is a former municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Mollens, Chermignon, Montana and Randogne merged into the new municipality of Crans-Montana.HistoryMollens is first mentioned about 1250 as Molaen. In 1286 it was mentioned as Moleing. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Molei, however, that name is no longer used.GeographyMollens had an area, of 32.5km2. Of this area, 8.58km2 or 26.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 10.44km2 or 32.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1km2 or 3.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.25km2 or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and 12.24km2 or 37.6% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 28.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 2.1% is pastures and 24.0% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 0.6% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 4.2% is unproductive vegetation, 32.3% is too rocky for vegetation and 1.1% of the land is covered by glaciers.The former municipality is located in the Sierre district, on the right bank of the Rhone river. The municipality stretches from an elevation of 900to. It consists of the villages of Mollens and Cordona, the scattered settlements of Conzor, Laques and Saint-Maurice-de-Laques as well as the resort village of Aminona.