Ersigen

Ersigen is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2016, the former municipalities of Oberösch and Niederösch merged into Ersigen. Based on a few, individual finds the Ersigen area was settled during the Neolithic era. There is a Hallstatt burial mound in Allmendwald and a Roman storehouse in Murrain. The town is first mentioned in 1112 as Ergisingen. Between 1112 and 1418 there was a line of Ministerialis (unfree knights) from Ersigen, who served the Zähringen and Kyburg families. This family was, most likely, the second largest land owner (after the monasteries) in Ersigen. However, in 1367 they sold their holdings to Peter von Thorberg. In 1375 the village was likely attacked by the Gugler army. A large graveyard is the only evidence of this attack. In 1397 Thorburg gave his property, woods and the rights to low justice in Ersigen to the Thorberg Carthusian monastery. The rights to high justice were held by the Vogtei of Wangen. After 1528 the rights to low justice were held by the Thorberg vogt. By 1481 there was a daughter chapel in Ersigen, which was under the Parish church at Kirchberg. The chapel was abandoned in 1528, and very little remains. In 1640 the village was involved in the construction and upkeep of the Emmen bridge as well as the Bern-Zürich road. In 1803, following the Act of Mediation, Ersigen became part of the district of Burgdorf. In 1824 a cheesemaker set up shop in Ersigen. In 1836 Ersigen received the Thorbergerwald, the forests formerly owned by the Thorberg family, from the canton. During the 20th century the villages of Ober- and Niederösch joined Ersigen. The village remained isolated until 1965, when the A1 motorway was built, which provided easy access to Ersigen. This led to the construction of several new housing areas. During the first half of the 20th century, Bad Rudswil in Ersigen was a well-known medicinal thermal bath. Later in the 20th century the baths closed, leaving the most of the village employed in farming or light industry.