Thun | ||
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Thun in 2012
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Coordinates: 46°46′N 7°38′E / 46.767°N 7.633°ECoordinates: 46°46′N 7°38′E / 46.767°N 7.633°E | ||
Country | Switzerland | |
Canton | Berne | |
District | Thun | |
Government | ||
• Executive |
Gemeinderat with 5 members |
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• Mayor |
Stadtpräsident (list) Raphael Lanz SVP/UDC (as of February 2014) |
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• Parliament |
Stadtrat with 40 members |
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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 2015) | ||
• Total | 43,500 | |
• 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 SFSO statistics |
Thun (French: Thoune) is a town and a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Berne 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 Berne.
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.