Sonvilier is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

The castle was the center of government for the lands that the Lords of Arguel (or Erguel) ruled.

During the 16th century the municipality was the largest in the Erguel and was home to a half dozen mills that were held in fief to the Prince-Bishop of Basel.

After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, Sonvilier was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815.

Nearly three decades later, in 1871, a chapter of the Fédération jurassienne (Jura Federation), a federalist and anarchist section of the International Workingmen's Association, was formed in the village.

The Jura Federation leader, Mikhail Bakunin, held three conferences in the village during 1871.

[3] During the 18th and 19th centuries the local economy grew with small scale home work watchmaking and lace making.

A number of small workshops provided watch parts for final assembly in other towns in the region.

The financial crises of the 1930s and 1970s hit the watch making industry hard and many workshops went out of business.

[3] In 1874 the completion of the Biel-Les Convers railway connected Sonvilier into the national rail network.

In 1895, the canton acquired the Le Pré aux Boeuf farm and converted it into a boys boarding school.

It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Sonvilier, the hamlet of La Chaux-d'Abel as well as scattered farm houses on the slopes of the Montagne du Droit and the Montagne de l'Envers.

On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Arrondissement administratif Jura bernois.

[6] The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Banderole Argent in bend.

[10] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks French (889 or 76.8%) as their first language, German is the second most common (205 or 17.7%) and Italian is the third (22 or 1.9%).

In the tertiary sector; 16 or 16.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 7 or 7.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 9 or 9.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 8 or 8.2% were in education and 41 or 42.3% were in health care.

[10] From the 2000 census[update], 247 or 21.3% were Roman Catholic, while 627 or 54.1% 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.