Stettlen

Stettlen is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Stettlen is first mentioned in 1146 as Stetelon. Archeological excavations have found evidence of several prehistoric settlements in the Stettlen area. The earliest is several La Tène era graves which contain skeletons and some items of jewelry from near the modern Bleichestrasse. Traces of a Roman era settlement were found at Deisswil. During the High Middle Ages there was a small castle at Schwandiholz, of which no records remain. Stettlen was the smallest of the four parishes on the city of Bern. After 1300, it was considered part of the extended city and until 1798 residents of Stettlen were considered citizens of Bern. The village church of St. Blaise was first built in the 9th century. It was rebuilt during the 12th century and rebuilt again around 1400. No records remain of the first two churches but the foundations have been archeologically explored. The current church was built in 1729-30. The village of Stettlen was the center of a number of small farms and the hamlet of Deisswil. By 1810, Stettlen had 295 residents, Deisswil had 88 inhabitants and the scattered farms along the Utzlenberg collectively had 223 inhabitants. From 1700 until 1720 a Bernese patrician family built the Deisswilgut manor and mill in Stettlen. The area upstream from Deisswilgut became known as Upper Deisswilgut. Starting in 1757 Upper Deisswilgut became home to fulling, bleaching and dyeing plants that were built along the Worblen river. In 1846, a Federal blasting cap factory was built along the Worblen. This was followed in 1876 by the businessman Jorg Ulrich's cardboard factory. Initially the cardboard was produced with water power, which was replaced by steam power and by 1900 electricity. In 1913 the cardboard factory was connected to the Bern-Worb railroad. Low cost transportation helped make the Karton Deisswil AG factory into the largest cardboard factory in Switzerland.