Grenchen, Switzerland

Grenchen
Grenchen
Coat of arms
Grenchen Show map of Switzerland Grenchen Show map of Canton of Solothurn
Location of Grenchen
Coordinates: 47°11′N 7°24′E / 47.183°N 7.400°E / 47.183; 7.400Coordinates: 47°11′N 7°24′E / 47.183°N 7.400°E / 47.183; 7.400
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Solothurn
District	Lebern
Government
• Executive	Gemeinderat with 15 members
• Mayor	Stadtpräsident (list) François Scheidegger FDP/PRD (as of 2014)
Area
• Total	26.01 km2 (10.04 sq mi)
Elevation	451 m (1,480 ft)
Population (Dec 2015)
• Total	16,741
• Density	640/km2 (1,700/sq mi)
Postal code	2540
SFOS number	2546
Surrounded by	Arch (BE), Bettlach, Büren an der Aare (BE), Court (BE), Lengnau (BE), Romont (BE), Rüti bei Büren (BE), Selzach
Twin towns	Neckarsulm (Germany), Sélestat (France)
Website	www.grenchen.ch SFSO statistics

Grenchen (French: Granges) is a municipality in the district of Lebern in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.

It is located at the foot of the Jura mountains between Solothurn and Biel, approximately 25 km (16 mi) north of Bern. With over 16,000 inhabitants, it is one of the larger towns of the canton of Solothurn. The city is well known for its watch industry, that has been present for more than 150 years.

Grenchen is the 2008 winner of the Wakker Prize for architectural heritage.

Jura-Sternwarte Grenchen is located at Grenchen.

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.

Grenchen has an area, as of 2009^[update], of 26.01 square kilometers (10.04 sq mi). Of this area, 9.85 km² (3.80 sq mi) or 37.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 10.42 km² (4.02 sq mi) or 40.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 5.39 km² (2.08 sq mi) or 20.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.34 km² (0.13 sq mi) or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.05 km² (12 acres) 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.