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City of Thun

Thun
Thun in 2012
Thun in 2012
Coat of arms of Thun
Coat of arms
Thun is located in Switzerland
Thun
Thun
Thun is located in Canton of Bern
Thun
Thun
Coordinates: 46°46′N 7°38′E / 46.767°N 7.633°E / 46.767; 7.633Coordinates: 46°46′N 7°38′E / 46.767°N 7.633°E / 46.767; 7.633
Country Switzerland
Canton Bern
District Thun
Government
 • Executive Gemeinderat
with 5 members
 • Mayor Stadtpräsident (list)
Raphael Lanz SVP/UDC
(as of February 2014)
 • Parliament Stadtrat
with 40 members
Area
 • Total 21.58 km2 (8.33 sq mi)
Elevation (Railway station) 560 m (1,840 ft)
Highest elevation (Dürrenbergwald) 1,172 m (3,845 ft)
Lowest elevation (Aare at Lerchenfeld) 552 m (1,811 ft)
Population (Dec 2016)
 • Total 43,568
 • Density 2,000/km2 (5,200/sq mi)
Demonym(s) German: Thuner(in)
Postal code 3600-3645
SFOS number 0942
Surrounded by Amsoldingen, Heiligenschwendi, Heimberg, Hilterfingen, Homberg, Schwendibach, Spiez, Steffisburg, Thierachern, Uetendorf, Zwieselberg
Website www.thun.ch
SFSO statistics

Thun (French: Thoune) is a town and a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland with about 43,783 inhabitants (around 90,000 in the agglomeration), as of 31 December 2013.

It is located where the Aare flows out of Lake Thun (Thunersee), 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Bern.

Besides tourism, machine and precision instrument engineering, the largest garrison in the country, the food industry, armaments and publishing are of economic importance to Thun.

The official language of Thun is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.

The area of what is now Thun was inhabited since the Neolithic age (mid-3rd millennium BC). During the early Bronze Age there were a number of settlements along the lake shore and the Aare. A site at Renzenbühl had a local chief or nobleman's grave which contained one of the richest collections of early Bronze Age artifacts in Europe. Another site at Wiler contained approximately 1,500 maritime snail shells which were harvested from the Mediterranean and traded over the Alps.

The name of the town derives from the Celtic term Dunum, meaning "fortified town". It fell to Rome in 58 BC, when Roman legions conquered almost all of Switzerland, and it soon became one of the main centers of Roman administration in the region.


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