Mollens () is a former municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Mollens, Chermignon, Montana and Randogne merged into the new municipality of Crans-Montana.
History
Mollens is first mentioned about 1250 as Molaen. In 1286 it was mentioned as Moleing. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Molei, however, that name is no longer used.
Geography
Mollens had an area, , of . Of this area, or 26.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 32.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 37.6% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 28.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 2.1% is pastures and 24.0% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 0.6% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 4.2% is unproductive vegetation, 32.3% is too rocky for vegetation and 1.1% of the land is covered by glaciers.
The former municipality is located in the Sierre district, on the right bank of the Rhone river. The municipality stretches from an elevation of . It consists of the villages of Mollens and Cordona, the scattered settlements of Conzor, Laques and Saint-Maurice-de-Laques as well as the resort village of Aminona.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, a Mill-wheel Argent, in chief dexter a Sun in Splendour Or and sinister a Grape of the same slipped Vert.
Demographics
Mollens has a population () of 269. , 23.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 27.4%. It has changed at a rate of 29.7% due to migration and at a rate of 0.6% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (593 or 77.0%) as their first language, German is the second most common (102 or 13.2%) and Italian is the third (26 or 3.4%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh.
, the population was 51.2% male and 48.8% female. The population was made up of 329 Swiss men (37.2% of the population) and 124 (14.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 331 Swiss women (37.4%) and 100 (11.3%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 199 or about 25.8% were born in Mollens and lived there in 2000. There were 252 or 32.7% who were born in the same canton, while 137 or 17.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 164 or 21.3% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.8%.
, there were 289 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 396 married individuals, 32 widows or widowers and 53 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 302 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 102 households that consist of only one person and 14 households with five or more people. , a total of 292 apartments (29.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 655 apartments (66.2%) were seasonally occupied and 43 apartments (4.3%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 14.7 new units per 1000 residents.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Heritage sites of national significance
The Fairy Rock () is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 44.47% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.17%), the SP (16.22%) and the FDP (9.01%). In the federal election, a total of 365 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 67.8%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 302 votes were cast, of which 35 or about 11.6% were invalid. The voter participation was 56.2%, which is similar to the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 361 votes were cast, of which 37 or about 10.2% were invalid. The voter participation was 69.4%, which is much more than the cantonal average of 59.88%.