Gipf-Oberfrick

History

Discoveries in the area that would become Gipf-Oberfrick indicated that there were several earlier settlements. These finds include; several Bronze Age items, La Tène culture graves and Roman era buildings and a farm house from the 1st to 4th Centuries. The modern village of Gipf is first mentioned in 1259 as Cubibe. In 1276 it was mentioned as Gipff, and in 1278 as Guffpha. In 1288 Oberfrick was mentioned as Obiren Vrieche. At one time the castle of Alt-Thierstein was above the village on the Tiersteinberg. The castle is now a ruin. Before 1232 the village was owned by the count of Homberg-Thierstein. After 1232 it came under the authority of the lords of Frick, a Habsburg vassal. In 1406 the Lords of Eptingen acquired the village and then later it came to the city of Basel. In 1534 the rights to the village fell back to Austria and it became part of the district of Fricktal. It remained under Habsburgs until 1797. Frick, Oberfrick and Gipf formed a municipal court (bailiwick). This court had the authority over Zwing und Bann within the three villages, making the bailiwick self-governing on minor issues. The area suffered great destruction in the Thirty Years War. After the Act of Mediation in 1803, the Confederation of Fricktal joined the Swiss Confederation. At that time, the former bailiwick was divided into the municipalities of Frick and Gipf-Oberfrick. Gipf and Frick were united in one parish, until 1953, when an independent Gipf-Oberfrick parish was created. St. Wendelin's chapel was built in 1708, and a parish church was built in 1968–70.

Geography

Gipf-Oberfrick has an area, , of . Of this area, or 49.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 40.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 10.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 6.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.7%. 38.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 24.8% is used for growing crops and 18.9% is pastures, while 5.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. The municipality is located in the Laufenburg district, in the upper Fricktal (Frick river valley). It consists of the villages of Gipf and Oberfrick.

Most-observed species

• Meadow Brown

  Maniola jurtina (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  14,788
• Marbled White

  Melanargia galathea Linnaeus, 1758 · Insecta
  7,747
• Common Blue

  Polyommatus icarus (von Rottemburg, 1775) · Insecta
  7,179
• Annual Fleabane

  Erigeron annuus (L.) Pers. · Magnoliopsida
  6,949
• Small Heath

  Coenonympha pamphilus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  5,747
• European roe deer

  Capreolus capreolus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Mammalia
  4,550
• bow-winged grasshopper

  Chorthippus biguttulus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Insecta
  3,413
• Yellow-legged hornet

  Vespa velutina Lepeletier, 1836 · Insecta
  3,084

Most recent

• 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 4.4 — 2023-03-22
  1 km NW of Pont-de-Roide, France
• M 3.9 — 2022-09-10
  1 km WSW of Zimmersheim, France
• M 4.1 — 2021-12-24
  2 km WSW of Blamont, France
• M 3.1 — 2018-05-04
  2 km W of Schliengen, Germany