Port, Switzerland

Port is a municipality in the canton of Bern in Switzerland, located in the Biel/Bienne administrative district.

Port is first mentioned in 1228 as Port.

The banks of the Zihl/Thielle river were inhabited since at least the Neolithic. The remains of a Neolithic Cortaillod culture stilt house village from the second quarter of the 4th Millennium BC were discovered in the Stüdeli area. The area was resettled often during the following millennia. From Bronze Age settlements a number of artifacts were discovered including swords, spearheads, axes and sickles. A Celtic settlement from the 2nd and 1st centuries BC left behind two helmets, metal vessels and about 120 swords and spearheads. However, most of the swords were broken or bent. One bent iron sword contains an engraving, in Greek letters, of the name Korisios. This is considered the oldest written document in Switzerland. Wooden pilings from the same era indicate that the settlement built a bridge over the river. Scattered tools and weapons from the Roman era, the Early Middle Ages and more recently indicate that the area remained settled.

By the 12th century Port was owned by the Counts of Neuchâtel, and in the 13th century the Counts of Neuchâtel-Nidau. After that line died out, the Inselgau region, including Port, was acquired by Fribourg in 1382. They held it for a short while before Bern acquired the Inselgau in 1398, where it remained. The construction of the Nidau-Büren Canal isolated the Portmoos section from the rest of Port. A suspension bridge was eventually built to connect Port and Portmoos. In the 1950s Port became a suburb of the nearby city of Biel. An attempt to annex Port into Biel was defeated by the Grand Council of Bern in 1950-51. The sections of Portmoos and Spärs became industrial centers in Port. Today almost 80% of jobs in Port are in industry, though about 83% of the population commutes to jobs in Biel and Nidau. As the population grew, municipal schools opened in 1954 and in 1968-71.

The village church was first mentioned in 1228 as a filial church to the parish church in Nidau. In 1453 it became part of the parish of Bellmund. When Bern adopted the Protestant Reformation in 1528, the church was closed and Port became part of the Reformed parish of Bürglen. About a decade later, in 1539, Port joined the Nidau parish. The village church was last mentioned as a building in 1588. A small infirmary chapel became a chapel with cemetery in 1825-26. This chapel was rebuilt and renovated several times in the 20th century.

Port has an area of 2.46 km² (0.95 sq mi). As of 2014, a total of 0.52 km² (0.20 sq mi) or 21.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.73 km² (0.28 sq mi) or 29.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.09 km² (0.42 sq mi) or 44.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.1 km² (25 acres) or 4.1% is either rivers or lakes.

During the same year, industrial buildings made up 3.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 26.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.1%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.5%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 14.6% is used for growing crops and 4.9% is pastures, while 1.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The town lies on the Nidau-Büren channel, which links Lake Biel with Solothurn, dug out during the Jura water correction. Since then the community has been split into two parts on either side of the canal. The regulating dam Port, commissioned in 1939 and a small foot bridge, erected in the 1980s, connect both sides. The municipality stretches from the channel to the slopes of the Jensberg hill.