Pratteln
Description
Pratteln is a municipality in the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland, located in the district of Liestal.
History
Pratteln is first mentioned around 1102-03 as Bratello.
Geography
Pratteln has an area, as of 2009, of 10.69 square km. Of this area, 2.95 km2 (1.14 sq mi) or 27.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 3 km2 (1.2 sq mi) or 28.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.61 km2 (1.78 sq mi) or 43.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.1 km2 (25 acres) or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes and 0.04 km2 (9.9 acres) or 0.4% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 10.8% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 14.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 11.7%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.9% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.9%. Out of the forested land, 25.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 13.8% is used for growing crops and 10.5% is pastures, while 3.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located in the Liestal district. The old, star-shaped village is located at the foot of Mt. Adlerberg. It has expanded down into the Rhine valley, with a new settlement and industrial development.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or, an Eagle displayed Sable fesswise, langued, beaked and membered Gules, bordered Sable.
Sites
The entire village of Pratteln is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Religion
From the 2000 census, 4,319 or 29.0% were Roman Catholic, while 5,202 or 34.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 607 members of an Orthodox church (or about 4.07% of the population), there were 52 individuals (or about 0.35% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 279 individuals (or about 1.87% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 individuals (or about 0.03% of the population) who were Jewish, and 1,691 (or about 11.35% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 43 individuals who were Buddhist, 47 individuals who were Hindu and 14 individuals who belonged to another church. 2,016 (or about 13.53% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 629 individuals (or about 4.22% of the population) did not answer the question.
Transportation
The municipality is located on the A3 motorway.