Grenchen

Sister cities

• Sélestat
• Neckarsulm

History

Around 1000 AD, the local barons built a castle on the local cliff that was inhabited for three centuries. The name Grenchen was first documented in 1131 as Granechun. The name comes from the Gallo-Romanic graneca, meaning by the granary. * 1851: Clock manufacture begins * 1918: General strike

Geography

Grenchen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 37.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 40.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 20.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 9.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.8%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 38.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 25.8% is used for growing crops and 6.0% is pastures and 5.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is the capital of the Lebern District. It is the second largest city in the Canton of Solothurn. The municipality stretches from the hamlet of Staad along the Aare river at an elevation of to the first mountain range of the Jura Mountains, the Oberer Grenchenberg at .