St. Ursen

St. Ursen (known as Saint-Ours in French; Arpitan: Sent-Ôrs [ʃɛ̃t wa] ⓘ) is a municipality in the district of Sense in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland.

It is one of the municipalities with a large majority of German speakers in the mostly French-speaking Canton of Fribourg.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Cross bottony Argent in chief between two Swords in saltire of the same hilted and pommed Or.

[9] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (1,045 or 89.9%) as their first language, French is the second most common (103 or 8.9%) and Portuguese is the third (6 or 0.5%).

[9] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][13] The Farm House of Joseph Von of the Weid and the Ofenhaus are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 26.8% of the vote.

Still today, dairy farming and cattle raising are an important branch of economic activity.

However, by now the village is mainly a residential community and a significant part of the population is commuting to the cities of Fribourg and Bern.

[9] There were 584 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.2% of the workforce.

In the tertiary sector; 25 or 22.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 37 or 32.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 3 or 2.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 12 or 10.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 7 or 6.2% were in education and 1 was in health care.

[9] From the 2000 census[update], 904 or 77.8% were Roman Catholic, while 194 or 16.7% 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.

The upper Secondary school is divided into gymnasium (university preparatory) and vocational programs.

After they finish the upper Secondary program, students may choose to attend a Tertiary school or continue their apprenticeship.

[19] During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 91 students attending 5 classes in St. Ursen.

[11] As of 2000[update], there were 105 students from St. Ursen who attended schools outside the municipality.

St. Ursen school house
Farmhouse of Joseph von der Weid
Ofenhaus
St.-Ursus-Chapel