Welschenrohr

Geschichte

Welschenrohr is a municipality in the district of Thal in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.HistoryWelschenrohr is first mentioned in 1179 as Rore. An important watch manufacturing place up to the 1960s, its economy was heavily affected by the late 1960s watch crisis. Now, its economy specializes in fine mechanics.GeographyWelschenrohr has an area, of 12.99km2. Of this area, 4.61km2 or 35.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 7.58km2 or 58.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.64km2 or 4.9% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.03km2 or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and 0.11km2 or 0.8% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Out of the forested land, 56.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 7.3% is used for growing crops and 24.1% is pastures and 3.8% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.The municipality is located in the Thal district, along the road between Balsthal and Moutier. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Welschenrohr. It is located in the Jura mountains.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per bend sinister Gules and Argent a Cramp fesswise counterchanged.DemographicsWelschenrohr has a population of., 6.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -6.3%. Over the same time period the population has changed at a rate of -4.7% due to migration and at a rate of -3.5% due to births and deaths.