Kappelen

Kappelen (French: Chapelle) is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

[3] The Roman road between Aventicum and Petinesca ran along the present day border of the municipality.

Even after they granted land to the monasteries, the counts retained the right to collect a tithe from the village.

The Counts of Neuchâtel-Aarberg originally had the right to hold the low court in the village.

The Aare river flooded periodically, destroying or damaging the village, until the construction of the Hagneck Canal in 1868–78.

Agriculture has remained important in the local economy though a freight yard operated between 1954 and 1968.

In 1982-83 a regional office and maintenance depot of the cantonal construction department opened.

While the village has no rail connection, it has been serviced by a bus from Biel and Aarberg since 1967 and the private Biel-Kappelen Airport.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Chapel Argent roofed Gules.

[8] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (970 or 87.2%) as their first language, Arabic is the second most common (18 or 1.6%) and Albanian is the third (17 or 1.5%).

[8] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][12] In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 52.84% of the vote.

In the tertiary sector; 27 or 20.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 3 or 2.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 18 or 13.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 2.3% were in the information industry, 41 or 31.1% were technical professionals or scientists, and 20 or 15.2% were in health care.

[8] From the 2000 census[update], 67 or 6.0% were Roman Catholic, while 822 or 73.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude.

Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.

Of the primary students, 5.6% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens).

[15] Kappelen is home to Biel-Kappelen Airport, which has an ICAO code of LSZP.

Aerial view by Walter Mittelholzer (1923)