Cheiry

Cheiry (ʃeʁi; Chêri, locally Tsèri tsɛˈʁi) is a former municipality in the district of Broye in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. On 1 January 2021 the former municipality of Cheiry merged into the municipality of Surpierre. Cheiry is first mentioned around 1184-85 as Chirie. Its territory was enlarged in 2005 with the formerly independent municipality Chapelle. On 5 October 1994, 23 members of the cult the Order of the Solar Temple were found in dead in the farm La Rochette in Cheiry. Cheiry had an area, , of . Of this area, or 65.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 27.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.3% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.4%. Out of the forested land, 24.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 42.7% is used for growing crops and 22.4% is pastures. The former municipality is located in the Broye district, in the Surpierre exclave. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess, Or a Semi-Eagle displayed issuant Gules, and Azure three Plates. Cheiry had a population (as of 2019) of 390. , 2.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 4.6%. Migration accounted for 8.9%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.9%. Most of the population () speaks French (244 or 91.4%) as their first language, German is the second most common (11 or 4.1%) and English is the third (5 or 1.9%). the population was 51.1% male and 48.9% female. The population was made up of 179 Swiss men (49.2% of the population) and 7 (1.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 172 Swiss women (47.3%) and 6 (1.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 106 or about 39.7% were born in Cheiry and lived there in 2000. There were 52 or 19.5% who were born in the same canton, while 77 or 28.