Randogne

Randogne (ʁɑ̃dɔɲ) is a former municipality in the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. On 1 January 2017 the former municipalities of Chermignon, Mollens, Montana and Randogne merged to form the new municipality of Crans-Montana. Randogne is first mentioned in 1224 as Randonni. Randogne had an area, , of . Of this area, or 26.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 31.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 12.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 30.0% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 7.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.3%. Out of the forested land, 28.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.1% is used for growing crops and 5.4% is pastures, while 5.7% is used for orchards or vine crops and 15.1% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 6.6% is unproductive vegetation and 23.5% is too rocky for vegetation. The former municipality is located in the Sierre district, on the northern slope of the Rhone valley. The municipality goes from the Rhone valley at an elevation of to Mont Bonvin at . It consists of the village of Randogne (which was rebuilt in stone after the destructive fire of 1898), the village of Loc, portions of the village of Darnona and Bluche, as well as the majority of the resort of Montana-Vermala and Montana-Station. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per bend Gules a Sun in Splendour Or between three Mullets of Five of the same and Or a Grape Gules slipped Vert in base Coupeaux of the last. Randogne had a population () of 4,479. , 59.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals (It is mainly due to the number of International students enrolled in the hospitality school in the village). Over the last 10 years (2000–2010 ) the population has changed at a rate of 36.2%. It has changed at a rate of 30.