Thun

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Thun

Thun is a municipality

Municipalities of Switzerland

Municipalities are the smallest government division in Switzerland, and are called Gemeinden in German language, communes in French language, comuni in Italian language and vischnancas in Romansh language....
in the district of Thun

Thun (district)

The District of Thun is one of the 26 Districts of Switzerland in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. Its capital is the municipality of Thun. The district has an area of 285 km? and consists of 27 Municipalities of Switzerland:...
in the canton

Cantons of Switzerland

File:Karte 13 Alte Orte.pngThe 26 cantons of Switzerland are the State s of the federation of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereignty state with its own borders, army and currency until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848....
of Berne in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
with about 42,136 inhabitants (1 January 2006).

It is located where the River Aare flows out of Lake Thun

Lake Thun

Lake Thun is an Swiss Alps lake in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. It took its name from the city of Thun, on its northern shore.Lake Thun's approximately 2,500 km? large catchment area frequently causes local flooding after heavy rainfalls....
(Thunersee), 30 km south of Bern. Besides tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational or leisure purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from...
, machine and apparatus engineering, the largest garrison

Garrison

Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, of more than 50 men, but now often simply using it as a home base....
of the country, the food industry and publishing are of economic importance to Thun.

area of what is now Thun was inhabited since the Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
age (mid-3rd millennium BC).

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Encyclopedia

Thun is a municipality

Municipalities of Switzerland

Thun (district)

Cantons of Switzerland

Switzerland

Lake Thun

Tourism

Garrison

History

The area of what is now Thun was inhabited since the Neolithic

Neolithic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
in 58 BC, when Roman legions

Roman army

The Roman Army was employed by the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire, as part of the Roman military. Its most important infantry constituent for much of its history was the Roman legion....
conquered almost all Switzerland, and soon became one of the main centres of Roman administration in the region.

The Romans were driven off from Thun, along with the whole of Switzerland, by the Burgundians

Burgundians

File:Roman Empire 125.svgThe Burgundians were an East Germanic language Germanic tribes which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe....
around 400 AD. The Aare became the frontier between the Christian Burgundians and the Pagan, German-speaking Alemanni, who lived north. Thun was mentioned for the first time during the 7th century, in the chronicle of Frankish monk Fredgar.

The region of Thun became a part of the Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early modern Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor....
in 1033, when Conrad II gained the title of King of Burgundy. The emperors entrusted the Zähringen

Zähringen

Z?hringen is the name of an old and influential Germany noble family, taken from the castle and village of that name. Z?hringen today is part of the city of Freiburg, which the dukes founded in 1120....
family, centred in Bern, to subdue the unruly nobles of central Switzerland. Around 1190 Duke Bertold V of Zähringen, built a castle in Thun and expanded the city. After Bertold's death in 1218, his territories went to Ulrich III von Kyburg.

In 1264 Thun received state rights and in 1384 the town was bought by the canton of Bern. Thun was the capital of the Oberland canton of the Helvetic Republic.

In 1819 a Military School was founded in the city, which later developed in the main military school in Switzerland. Thun was connected to the railway network of Switzerland in 1859 and telephone access made available in 1888.

Main sights

, Mönch

Mönch

The M?nch is a mountain in the Bernese Alps Swiss Alps. Together with the Eiger and the Jungfrau it forms a salient tripartite group visible from far away....
and Jungfrau

Jungfrau

The Jungfrau is the highest peak of a mountain massif of the same name, located in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps, overlooking Wengen....
]]

The Castle (twelfth century) with a history museum. This has several sections about medieval armors and weaponry and rural life.
The Rathaus (townhall), erected in the sixteenth century
Lake Thun
Lake Thun

Lake Thun is an Swiss Alps lake in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. It took its name from the city of Thun, on its northern shore.Lake Thun's approximately 2,500 km? large catchment area frequently causes local flooding after heavy rainfalls....
and the view of the Alps
Swiss Alps

The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position with the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....
: Niederhorn
Niederhorn

The Niederhorn is a peak in the Swiss Alps in the Bernese Oberland near Beatenberg. It is the peak furthest west in the G?ggis ridge. From its summit, you can see Lake Thun and the entire Bernese Alps....
, Niesen
Niesen

The Niesen is a mountain, located in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps, overlooking the lake of Thun and is often called the Swiss Pyramid....
, Stockhorn
Stockhorn

The Stockhorn is a mountain in the Bernese Alps Swiss Alps, above the town of Erlenbach in Simmetal.The Stockhorn is 2190 m high and is accessible via cable car....
.
The Wocher Panorama, the oldest remaining panorama drawing in the world.
The Kunstmuseum Thun
Schloss Schadau
Schloss Schadau

Schloss Schadau is a castle on the south side of the Aar near Lake Thun in the city of Thun, Canton Berne, Switzerland.It is situated in the Schaudaupark, and was built between 1846 and 1854 according to the plans of Pierre-Charles Dusillon in the Gothic Revival architecture style, for the banker Abraham Denis Alfred de Rougemont...

Sports

Soccer: FC Thun
FC Thun

FC Thun 1898 is a Switzerland football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club currently plays in the Swiss Challenge League since being relegated in the Swiss Super League 2007-08 season....
plays in the Swiss Challenge League
Challenge League

The Dosenbach Challenge League is the second highest tier of the Swiss Football League. 16 teams play in the Challenge League. The winners of the league are promoted to the Swiss Super League, and the bottom two teams are relegated to the Swiss 1....
. Their home ground is the Lachen stadium. On 23 August, 2005 FC Thun qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League

The UEFA Champions League, which evolved from the European Champion Clubs' Cup, is a seasonal club Association football competition organised by UEFA since 1992 for the most successful football clubs in Europe....
.
Orienteering
Orienteering

Orienteering is a family of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain....
: Thun hosted the 1981 World Orienteering Championships
World Orienteering Championships

The World Orienteering Championships were first held in 1966. They were held biennially up to 2003 . Since 2003, competitions have been held annually....
.

In fiction

An important scene in the spy novel Smiley's People
Smiley's People

Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carr?, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy," following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy....
by John le Carré

John le Carré

John le Carr? is an English author of spy fiction, several of which have been adapted for film and television. He worked for MI5 and MI6 in the 1950s and 1960s, before leaving the secret service to devote himself to writing after the success of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold....
is set here.

Notable residents

Tanja Frieden
Tanja Frieden

Tanja Frieden is a Switzerland snowboarder. She won a gold medal in the inaugural Snowboard Cross competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics.In the Snowboarding at the 2006 Winter Olympics, Frieden was in second place well behind American Lindsey Jacobellis when the latter crashed while attempting to showboat on the second to last jump....
, Olympic gold medalist 2006 (Snowboard Cross)
Niklaus Gerber
Niklaus Gerber

Niklaus Gerber was a Swiss dairy chemist and industrialist. He was born in 1850 in Thun, Switzerland. He attended the University of Bern and University of Zurich, studied chemistry in Paris and Munich and spent 2 years at the Swiss-American Milk Co....
(1850-1914), Dairy chemist and industrialist

External links

Official city website
with archive since 2005