Boniswil

History

Boniswil is first mentioned around 1217–22 as Bonoltswile. The village was ruled by the Counts of Lenzburg, then the counts of Kyburg and then the Habsburgs and finally in 1415 the city of Bern. The rights to low justice were held by the Habsburg vassals, the lords of Rinach in the 13th century. These rights, in turn, came in 1486 to the possession of the lords of Hallwyl and passed in 1616 to Bern. Einsiedeln Abbey collected rent on about three fifths of the land in the village. Religiously, it was part of the Seengen parish until 1842 when it joined Leutwil parish. In the 18th century, the major economic sources in the village were the cotton industry with home spinning and weaving and agriculture. In the 19th century, cotton was replaced by the straw industry. The construction of the Seetalbahn train line in 1883 brought economic recovery and new industries (tobacco, box factories). Since 1950 a number of new buildings were added to the municipality. In 1990 only 6% of the local jobs were in agricultural sector, while about 53% were in services. 73% of the population commutes outside the municipality for work, while 49% of jobs in the municipality are filled by commuters.

Geography

Boniswil is located in the Seetal valley, on the shores of Lake Hallwil, and on the Seetalstrasse. The municipality consists of the village of Boniswil and the hamlets of Alliswil, which became part of Boniswil in 1898. It has an area, , of . Of this area, or 57.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 7.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 19.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 12.0% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 15.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.1%. Out of the forested land, 6.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 28.2% is used for growing crops and 21.2% is pastures, while 7.9% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 12.0% is unproductive vegetation and .

Most-observed species

• Meadow Brown

  Maniola jurtina (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  11,016
• Annual Fleabane

  Erigeron annuus (L.) Pers. · Magnoliopsida
  10,046
• European roe deer

  Capreolus capreolus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Mammalia
  9,031
• Common Blue

  Polyommatus icarus (von Rottemburg, 1775) · Insecta
  8,540
• red fox

  Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758) · Mammalia
  4,743
• Small Heath

  Coenonympha pamphilus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  4,483
• Marbled White

  Melanargia galathea Linnaeus, 1758 · Insecta
  4,194
• Silver-washed Fritillary

  Argynnis paphia (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  3,748

Most recent

• M 3.7 — 2026-04-26
  4 km N of Quarten, Switzerland
• M 4.1 — 2025-07-21
  4 km E of Frutigen, Switzerland
• M 3.5 — 2024-06-27
  1 km SSW of Todtmoos, Germany
• M 4.2 — 2024-06-04
  2 km NNW of Unteriberg, Switzerland
• M 3.9 — 2022-09-10
  1 km WSW of Zimmersheim, France
• M 3.8 — 2022-09-01
  2 km WSW of Sevelen, Switzerland