Olten

Olten is a town in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland and capital of the district of the same name.

Olten's railway station is within 30 minutes of Zürich, Bern, Basel, and Lucerne by train, and is a rail hub of Switzerland.

History

Significant amounts of artefacts of the Magdalenian (c. 16'000 to 14'000 years ago) have been excavated near Olten. There are also finds dated to the Mesolithic and Neolithic, but there is no trace of a settlement, and no ceramic finds; finds dating to the Bronze and Iron Ages are also rather limited. There was a vicus at the site during the Roman era. The name of the settlement is not known, but it seems to have been of a certain importance, presumably reflecting the presence of a bridge across the Aar River. The Roman settlement was probably destroyed in the later 3rd century. At the end of the 3rd century, a fortification was built at the bridge-head, on the south-eastern corner of the earlier vicus. This fortress was abandoned in the 4th century, and later replaced by a larger castle, comparable to late Roman fortresses protecting crossings of the Aar at Solothurn and Brugg.

Olten District

Olten District is one of the ten districts of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland, situated around the city of Olten. Together with the Gösgen District, it forms the electoral district of Olten-Gösgen. It has a population of 52,906 (as of 31 December 2014).

Municipalities

Olten District contains the following municipalities:

Mergers and name changes

On 1 January 1973 the former municipality of Grod merged into the municipality of Gretzenbach.

Geography

Olten has an area, as of 2009, of 80.55 square kilometers (31.10 sq mi). Of this area, 24.88 km² (9.61 sq mi) or 30.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 34.43 km² (13.29 sq mi) or 42.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 19.7 km² (7.6 sq mi) or 24.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 1.38 km² (0.53 sq mi) or 1.7% is either rivers or lakes and 0.16 km² (0.062 sq mi) or 0.2% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 11.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.4%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.3% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 41.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 29.1% is used for growing crops, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the district is flowing water.