Kriens, town, Lucerne canton, central Switzerland, at the foot of Mt. Pilatus. It is a suburb of Lucerne.

Kriens is a municipality in the district of Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland.

The municipality lies at the foot of Mount Pilatus, and is a western suburb of Lucerne.

Geography

Kriens consists of the ("citified") town of diverse districts, the community of Obernau to its west, the hamlet of Hergiswald, 5 km to the west of the town on the road to Eigenthal, and numerous independent farmsteads on the slopes of Mount Pilatus.

The border in the east, with the neighboring community of Lucerne, goes across the property of a large brewery. From there it runs in a north-westerly direction through the Gigeliwald and runs to the west of the Lucerne district of Obergütsch and the Gütschwald to the Böschenhof farmstead. From there it runs to the south-west up the slopes of Mount Sonnenberg and Mount Blettenberg to the Gspan farmstead. It turns thence to the south-east, separating the hamlet of Holderchäppeli (elev. 935 m), running over Mount Würzenegg (elev. 1146 m), Mount Chraigütsch (elev. 1081 m) and Mount Höchberg (elev. 1162 m) on its way to Mount Lauelenegg (elev. 1442 m) northwest of Mount Pilatus. Thence the municipal border leads to the north-east over Mount Fräkmüntegg (elev. 1469 m), and Mount Biele (elev. 1373 m) to the Hochwald. From there the border leads to Steinibach and shortly thereafter, nearly to the train station in Horw. From there it follows the train track toward Lucerne in a north-easterly direction back to the property of the brewery.

The eastern part of Kriens (the districts near the city and near Horw) lie in a valley. From Kupferhammer the land gently rises to the west, toward Obernau (elevation difference between Kupferhammer and Obernau less than 90 m).

To the north of the town is the little-forested southern slope of Mount Sonnenberg. The slope to the south of town is the northern side of Mount Schattenberg.

Mount Schattenberg is the first rise of Mount Pilatus. The lower part is cleared and partially developed. The majority of the land west of Obernau and south of town is forest. West of the line connecting Krienseregg and Fräkmüntegg there is a large, flat swamp, from which begin many brooks (including Tschuggenbach, Weissbach, Rotbach, and Renggbach). The whole area forms part of the north slope of Mount Pilatus.

Of importance is the stream the Unterer Krienbach, which often caused floods before it was covered. It flows through the town and empties into the Reuss River in Lucerne. The Schlundbach and the previously mentioned Steinibach flow in the direction of Horw and onward into Lake Lucerne.

The municipal land area of 27.34 square kilometres is just over slightly half covered in forest (50.5%). About a sixth (16.9%) is developed, and the remaining 31.6% is used for agriculture.

Neighboring municipalities

Kriens borders on Hergiswil to the south, on Horw to the south and east, on the city of Lucerne to the east, on Littau to the north, on Malters to the north-west, and on Schwarzenberg to the west.

Population

Population growth
Year	Population
1798	1'956
1837	2'663
1850	2'693
1888	4'319
1910	7'157
1920	7'247
1930	7'424
1950	9'821
1960	14'029
1970	20'409
1980	21'097
1990	23'079
2000	24'742
2004	25'190

Population growth

The population of Kriens has grown constantly since 1798. There were only three short periods of stagnation, the first from 1837-1850, the second 1910-1920 and the third 1970-1980. Particularly large increases occurred between 1888 and 1910 and between 1930 and 1970. Kriens celebrated a population of 10,000 in 1951; it reached 20,000 by 1970. Today Kriens is the third largest municipality in canton Lucerne, and one of the 25-biggest cities and municipalities in Switzerland.

Languages

The population speaks a dialect of High Alemannic German. At the time of the last census in 2000, 89.36% responded that their main language was German, 2.55% Italian, and 1.92% Serbian.

Religions-denomenations

The population was formerly Catholic. Through people leaving the church, and through immigration from other parts of Switzerland and abroad, this has changed.

As of 2000, the religious demography is as follows.

Population by nationality (Census)
Denomination	Percentage
Roman Catholic	66.79%
Protestant	15.82%
Atheist	7.44%
Muslim	3.28%
Orthodox Christians	2.22%
Believers of other non-Christian faiths	0.76%
Jewish	0.57%
Old Catholic	0.19%

The majority of the Muslims are Albanian and Bosnian, along with some other nationalities. The Orthodox Christians are mostly Serbians and Montenegrins. The Jews are generally members of the (orthodox) Hasidic branch of Judaism, and Swiss in nationality.

Origin-nationality

Of the 25,190 inhabitants at the end of 2004, 21,409 were Swiss, and 3,781 (or about 15%) were foreigners. At the time of the last census, in 2000, 80.46% were Swiss citizens (85.30% including dual citizens). In contrast to the other large municipalities in Lucerne, there are no communities with a foreign immigrant majority in Kriens.

Population by nationality (Census)
Nationality	Number not including dual citizens	Number including dual citizens
Switzerland	19'907	21'105
Italy	724	1'158
Serbia-Montenegro	928	994
Germany	293	403
Sri Lanka	228	264
Spain	197	244
Bosnia-Herzegovina	221	234
Macedonia	161	171
Portugal	148	158
Croatia	135	146
Austria	93	134
Turkey	86	103

Economy

Two-thirds of the jobs are in the service sector. Kriens offers 12,120 jobs in 958 work places.

Transportation

Kriens was formerly accessible by train. The Kriens-Lucerne Train handeled passenger traffic for decades. The tracks were removed from town in 2004, during a reorganisation of downtown. In the same year, rail service was restored to Kriens. The Kriens-Mattenhof station opened on the rail line between Lucerne and Interlaken in December 2004. It is, however, closer to Horw than to the town of Kriens.

Despite this, Kriens has an outstanding public transportation system. Line 1 of the VBL bus company goes from Lucerne to Kriens-Obernau via the town center. Lines 15 and 16 make other communities accessible by public transportation. In 2005, Line 16 was extended to the train station in Horw. Additionally, the new Line 31 goes from Lucerne to Horw via many communities in Kriens.

Kriens has its own exit on the Autobahn (the A2) near Grosshof, south of the Mount Sonnenberg tunnel. However, the exit for Horw, in Schlund, also on the A2, is more convenient for inhabitants in some parts of Kriens.

Community name

Neither the origin nor the meaning of Kriens is clearly ascertainable. It probably comes from the Indo-Germanic word (s)keri, that meant something like "separate" (4th century AD). It was then probably transferred into the Celtic Crientas. In a 9th-century document the Alemannic word Chrientes is mentioned.

History

In the oldest documents of the Benedictine Monastery of Lucerne, Chrientes is specified as one of their 16 properties. The monastery received the area as a present from two noble sisters. This document dates from about 840 AD. The Habsburgs acquired the municipality in 1291. It remained in their possession as part of the District of Rothenburg until the Battle of Sempach. The city of Lucerne took over in 1392. Kriens, along with Horw and Eigenthal, belonged to the Vogtei of Horw-Kriens from 1421 until 1798. In 1653 the local peasants revolted under the leadership of Hans Spengler. It was a part of the District of Lucerne until 1803, and has belonged to the Authority of Lucerne ever since.

The town was started by a monk named Jacobous Kriens years ago. Many people used the name of the town as their last name when they left years ago.

Schools

There are twelve primary and three secondary schools in Kriens.

Sport

The football team SC Kriens is based in the town.

External links

• website of Kriens (in German)

References

The article was translated from the German Wikipedia article of the same name.