Meisterschwanden

Sister cities

• Saint-Claude-de-Diray

History

There were two neolithic lake side settlements, at Seerose and Erlenhölzli, near the modern Meisterschwanden. Both sites were discovered from archeological digs on the lake shore. Additionally, at the Erlenhölzli site, divers discovered traces of Pfyn culture ceramics, stone tools and several artifacts made of wood, including a bow and arrow fragment all from about 3,600 BC. A chapel was already in the village before 1300. Until 1817 it was part of the parish of Seengen, but then formed its own parish. The Reformed parish church was built in 1820-22 and the Catholic church was built in 1977. Economically, the village was dependent on agriculture, which was supplemented by fishing and some viticulture. In the 18th Century, small scale cotton processing businesses appeared in the village. This was replaced in 1850 by straw goods manufacturing. At the beginning of the 21st Century, there are some small and medium enterprises as well as day tourism (2 hotels on the lake) in the village. The steam boat navigation on the Lake Hallwyl began in 1888. In 1916, the village received a rail connection (Wohlen-Meisterschwanden-rail). A bus line has stopped in the village since 1997.

Geography

Meisterschwanden is located in the Lenzburg district, in the Seetal valley on a terrace above the western bank of the Hallwilersee. Originally it stretched along the village stream, but has since spread out. The municipality consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Meisterschwanden and, since 1900, the hamlet of Tennwil. It has an area, , of . Of this area, or 57.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 18.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 23.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 12.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.9%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.9% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.1%. Out of the forested land, 17.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 37.9% is used for growing crops and 16.2% is pastures, while 3.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.