Bellwald
Description
Bellwald is a municipality in the district of Goms in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.
History
Bellwald was first used to refer to the nearby mountain 1273 Beliwalt and 1293 Belwalt. The name then came to mean the main village below the mountain. The village was first mentioned in 1374 as Zblattun.
Geography
Bellwald has an area, as of 2011, of 13.7 square km. Of this area, 49.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 19.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and 26.2% is unproductive land.
It lies at 1,600 m (5,200 ft) and is the highest village in Goms, or the upper Rhône River valley.
The municipality consists of scattered settlements between the Rhone and Fiescher valley. It consists of the village of Bellwald and the hamlets of Ried, Eggen, Bodmen and Fürgangen.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, issuant from Coupeaux Vert a Pine tree of the same trunked Maroon.
Sights
The entire hamlet of Bodma is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Religion
From the 2000 census, 332 or 77.8% were Roman Catholic, while 28 or 6.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 8 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.87% of the population), and there was 1 individual who belongs to another Christian church. There were 27 (or about 6.32% of the population) who were Islamic. 20 (or about 4.68% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 11 individuals (or about 2.58% of the population) did not answer the question.