Salvan () is a municipality in the district of Saint-Maurice, in the canton of Valais, Switzerland.
History
Salvan is first mentioned in 1018 as cum Silvano. Around 1025-31 it was mentioned as in monte Salvano. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Scharwang, however, that name is no longer used.
On 5 October 1994, 25 people were found dead in three burned-out chalets in Salvan. The chalets were owned by Luc Jouret, founder of the Order of the Solar Temple. Several victims of the fire were children.
Geography
Salvan has an area, , of . Of this area, 7.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 25.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and 65.2% is unproductive land.
The municipality is located in the Saint-Maurice district, in the Trient Valley. It consists of the village of Salvan and several hamlets, including Les Marécottes and until 1912, Vernayaz, Miéville and Gueuroz.
The territory of the municipality includes a significant portion of the Trient valley (along with the municipality of Finhaut) and two of its important side valleys: the entire Vallon d'Emaney (drained by the Triège) and the upper section of the Vallée de Barberine (drained by the Barberine and the Eau Noire) who is notably occupied by the artificial lake of Émosson. A small part of the territory of the municipality is not drained by the river Trient: it is the Vallon de Van, drained by the Salanfe which ends directly in the Rhone.
Although the municipality does not include the highest peak of the Trient Valley, several summits over 3,000 metres lie there. The highest are Tour Sallière and Mont Ruan, both in the Vallée de Barberine.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules on a pile inverted embowed Argent issuant from Coupeaux Vert a Pine Tree of the same trunked proper in chief dexter a Cross Bottony of the second and in sinister a Mullet of Seven of the same.
Demographics
Salvan has a population () of . , 7.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 0.6%. It has changed at a rate of 7.1% due to migration and at a rate of -3.9% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (947 or 92.8%) as their first language, German is the second most common (31 or 3.0%) and Dutch is the third (10 or 1.0%). There are 6 people who speak Italian.
, the population was 47.4% male and 52.6% female. The population was made up of 495 Swiss men (44.4% of the population) and 33 (3.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 538 Swiss women (48.3%) and 48 (4.3%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 522 or about 51.2% were born in Salvan and lived there in 2000. There were 159 or 15.6% who were born in the same canton, while 168 or 16.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 141 or 13.8% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 57.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.1%.
, there were 381 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 500 married individuals, 77 widows or widowers and 62 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 439 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 163 households that consist of only one person and 25 households with five or more people. , a total of 418 apartments (38.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 601 apartments (55.0%) were seasonally occupied and 73 apartments (6.7%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 8.1 new units per 1000 residents.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Heritage sites of national significance
Les Marécottes, a storage basin for the Swiss Federal Railways, is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire hamlet of Le Trétien is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Twin Towns
Salvan is twinned with the towns of St-Jeannet, Nice, France and Saint-Jeannet, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 43.21% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (22.63%), the SP (14.75%) and the SVP (9.32%). In the federal election, a total of 520 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 57.6%.