Port-Valais (Valais)

Geschichte

Port-Valais is a municipality of the district of Monthey in the French-speaking part of the canton of Valais in Switzerland.HistoryPort-Valais is first mentioned in 1180 as ad porvalesium. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Portwallis, however, that name is no longer used.GeographyPort-Valais has an area, of 14.4km2. Of this area, 3.37km2 or 23.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 7.68km2 or 53.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.7km2 or 11.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.44km2 or 3.1% is either rivers or lakes and 1.13km2 or 7.9% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.8%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.3% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 51.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 16.3% is used for growing crops and 2.6% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops and 3.0% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.5% is in lakes and 2.6% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 3.8% is unproductive vegetation and 4.0% is too rocky for vegetation.The municipality is located in the Monthey district, at the mouth of the Rhone into Lake Geneva. It consists of the villages of Le Bouveret and Les Evouettes and the hamlet of Port-Valais.