Sottens

Sottens is a former municipality in the district of Gros-de-Vaud in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is known for its radio transmitter for the French language Swiss radio, built in 1931. The municipalities of Villars-Tiercelin, Montaubion-Chardonney, Sottens, Villars-Mendraz and Peney-le-Jorat merged on 1 July 2011 into the new municipality of Jorat-Menthue. Sottens is first mentioned in 1147 as Sotens. Sottens has an area, , of . Of this area, or 65.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 29.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.0% is settled (buildings or roads). Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 47.5% is used for growing crops and 17.4% is pastures. The municipality was part of the Moudon District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Sottens became part of the new district of Gros-de-Vaud. The former municipality is located in the Gros-de-Vaud, auf einem Plateau des Jorat zwischen Echallens und Moudon gelegen district. It consists of the village of Sottens and the hamlets of Bez. Gros-de-Vaud, auf einem Plateau des Jorat zwischen Echallens und Moudon gelegen.. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Gules and Vert, overall a Bar wavy Argent surrounded with seven Mullets of Five Or four and three. Sottens has a population () of 257. , 9.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999-2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 20.7%. It has changed at a rate of 15.5% due to migration and at a rate of 4.7% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (180 or 85.7%), with German being second most common (15 or 7.1%) and Portuguese being third (12 or 5.7%). There is 1 person who speaks Italian. Of the population in the municipality 63 or about 30.0% were born in Sottens and lived there in 2000. There were 79 or 37.