Riehen

Riehen is a municipality in the canton of Basel-Stadt in Switzerland. Together with the city of Basel and Bettingen, Riehen is one of three municipalities in the canton.

Riehen hosts the Fondation Beyeler (a privately owned art gallery) as well as a toy museum.

Riehen was the first municipality in Switzerland to elect a woman, Trudy Späth-Schweizer to political office, in 1958.

History

Riehen is first mentioned in 1157 as Rieheim.

Neighbourhood

Riehen is bounded by two different municipalities in Switzerland and Germany.

Geography

Riehen has an area, as of 2009, of 10.86 square km. Of this area, 2.78 km2 (1.07 sq mi) or 25.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.74 km2 (1.06 sq mi) or 25.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 5.19 km2 (2.00 sq mi) or 47.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.23 km2 (0.089 sq mi) or 2.1% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 28.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.7%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 11.3%. Out of the forested land, 23.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 14.2% is used for growing crops and 7.3% is pastures, while 4.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 1.9% is in rivers and streams.

The municipality is located on the right bank of the Rhine on the Swiss-German border between Wiese and the Chrischonahügel.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, six Bricks Argent one, two and three.

Heritage sites of national significance

The Beyeler Foundation, the Cemetery am Hörnli with crematorium, the New and Old Wenkenhof with Park, the Reformed Village Church of St Martin with Meierhof and ring wall, the Wettsteinhäuser (Toy Museum and Village Museum), the Colnaghi House, Huber House and Schaeffer-von Déchend House are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire town of Riehen is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites

• Old Wenkenhof

• New Wenkenhof

• Beyeler Foundation

• Toy Museum

Religion

From the 2000 census, 4,683 or 23.0% were Roman Catholic, while 7,464 or 36.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 213 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.05% of the population), there were 56 individuals (or about 0.27% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 1,030 individuals (or about 5.06% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 95 individuals (or about 0.47% of the population) who were Jewish, and 272 (or about 1.34% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 53 individuals who were Buddhist, 48 individuals who were Hindu and 36 individuals who belonged to another church. 5,731 (or about 28.13% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 689 individuals (or about 3.38% of the population) did not answer the question.

Weather

Riehen has an average of 123.3 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives 763 mm (30.0 in) of precipitation. The wettest month is June during which time Riehen receives an average of 88 mm (3.5 in) of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 11.6 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 12.7, but with only 86 mm (3.4 in) of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is March with an average of 49 mm (1.9 in) of precipitation over 10.7 days.