Reutigen

Geschichte

Reutigen is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.HistoryReutigen is first mentioned about 1300 as Rötingen.Around 1308 the Burgistein family acquired the entire Strättligen Herrschaft which included Reutigen. In the following decades, the village passed through the hands of several other local nobles. Around 1486 and 1494, the Bubenberg and Schütz families sold their respective portions of the village to the city of Bern. Under Bernese rule the village was placed under the military authority of Seftigen and under the jurisdiction of the Vogt of Wimmis. Its political situation remained unchanged for centuries, until the 1803 Act of Mediation, when it joined the Niedersimmental District. The village remained generally agrarian into the 20th century. As of 2005, almost one-third of all jobs in the municipality are in agriculture, while half are in the services sector. However, many residents commute to jobs in Thun, Spiez or Bern.The village St. Mary's Chapel was probably built in the 12th century, but is first mentioned in a record in 1330. The ossuary probably dates from around the same time. The interior frescoes are from the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1412 it became a filial church of the parish in Wimmis. Then, in 1474 it became the parish church of the Reutigen parish.