Bourg-Saint-Pierre

Bourg-Saint-Pierre (buʁ sɛ̃ pjɛʁ; Lo Bôrg) is a municipality in the district of Entremont in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Bourg-Saint-Pierre is the highest inhabited locality of the valley and the last village when ascending the Great Saint Bernard Pass. Bourg-Saint-Pierre is first mentioned in 1125 as Burgus Sancti Petri. In medieval times, it was a stage on the Via Francigena. A of the Valais reffers to Bourg-Saint-Pierre as "S Pierre". A of the Helvetic Republic shows the town as "Saint Petersburg". Bourg-Saint-Pierre has an area, , of . Of this area, 29.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and 63.5% is unproductive land. The municipality is located on the Italian border. It consists of the village of Bourg-Saint-Pierre and the Hospice du Grand Saint-Bernard in the Great St Bernard Pass. The village of Bourg-Saint-Pierre lies at the foot of the Grand Combin. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, two Keys Or in saltire. The two keys are probably a reference to the keys of Saint Peter. Bourg-Saint-Pierre has a population () of . , 6.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of -10.9%. It has changed at a rate of -12.9% due to migration and at a rate of 3.5% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (195 or 92.0%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (6 or 2.8%) and Portuguese is the third (6 or 2.8%). There are 2 people who speak German. Of the population in the municipality 101 or about 47.6% were born in Bourg-Saint-Pierre and lived there in 2000. There were 52 or 24.5% who were born in the same canton, while 21 or 9.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 36 or 17.0% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.