Frutigen

Coat of arms

Frutigen

Location of Frutigen

Coordinates: 46°35′N 7°39′E / 46.583°N 7.650°ECoordinates: 46°35′N 7°39′E / 46.583°N 7.650°E

Country

Frutigen-Niedersimmental

Area

• Total

71.75 km² (27.70 sq mi)

Elevation

800 m (2,600 ft)

Population (Dec 2015)

• Total

6,857

• Density

96/km² (250/sq mi)

Postal code

3714

SFOS number

0563

Surrounded by

Adelboden, Diemtigen, Kandergrund, Kandersteg, Reichenbach im Kandertal

Twin towns

Teteven (Bulgaria)

Website

www.frutigen.ch
SFSO statistics

Frutigen is a municipality in the Bernese Oberland in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is the capital of the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district.

The area around Frutigen may have been settled since possibly the Bronze age or Roman times. It is first mentioned in 1234 as Frutingen.

During the Middle Ages there were three castles in the modern municipal border; Halten, Tellenburg and Bürg. By 1260 the scattered farmers of the valley floor had formed a political and business association. The association had its own seal in 1263 and in 1340 it negotiated a peace with an association in the Obersimmental. In 1391, the village of Frutigen gained the right to hold the low court in the village. In 1400, the expanding city-state of Bern annexed the entire valley. However, the association was powerful enough to force Bern to make concessions. The residents of the valley were freed from the obligation to pay taxes or provide labor for local lords and their soldiers marched under their own banner. The valley held onto these freedoms until 1854.

The village church, Saint Quirinus' church, was first mentioned in 1228 as one of the twelve churches around Lake Thun in the Strättliger Chronicle. However, this church was built over the foundation of an older church. The earliest church was probably built in the 8th or 9th century above 7th or 8th century tombs. The original church was replaced in the 11th or 12th century. That church was rebuilt in 1421. The current church was built on the ruins of the 1421 church following a fire in 1727. In 1528, Bern adopted the Protestant Reformation and began imposing it on the Canton. Frutigen, like the rest of the Bernese Oberland, resisted the new faith, but adopted it after the Interlaken uprising was suppressed. The large parish of Frutigen was divided several times but still includes the villages of Schwandi and Wengi which are both part of the municipality of Reichenbach. A Roman Catholic parish church was built in 1959. The Catholic Frutigen parish covers approximately the same area as the medieval parish.

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Wikipedia