Riddes

Geschichte

Riddes is a municipality in the district of Martigny in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.HistoryRiddes is first mentioned in 1001 as Ride. It was previously known its German name Riden, though that is not used any more.GeographyRiddes has an area, of 23.9km2. Of this area, 37.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 37.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 9.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and 16.4% is unproductive land.The municipality is located in the Martigny district, on the left bank of the Rhone. It consists of the village of Riddes, the hamlet of Auddes, and the vacation resorts of La Tzoumaz in Mayens-de-Riddes and Écône.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Trierced per pale wavy Azure a wheat ear Or in chief two Mullets of Five Argent, Argent a bridge masoned towered Sable and Gules a Grille Or.DemographicsRiddes has a population of., 24.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 25.4%. It has changed at a rate of 18.1% due to migration and at a rate of 1.5% due to births and deaths.Most of the population speaks French (1,945 or 88.5%) as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common (106 or 4.8%) and German is the third (72 or 3.3%). There are 33 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh.