Reisiswil

Reisiwil is a municipality in the Oberaargau administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Reisiswil is first mentioned in 1194 as Richolsiswillare. Reisiswil was part of the lands of the Counts of Langenstein-Grünenberg. Some land in the village was given in the 12th century to St. Urban's Abbey, while the Abbey of St. Gall became a major landholder as well. The St. Gallen properties were managed by the Counts of Grünenberg. With the extinction of the Grünenberg line, Bern inherited the village in 1504. After the 1798 French invasion, it became part of the municipality of Melchnau. It separated to become an independent municipality in 1815. During the 19th century the population grew as people found jobs in straw plaiting and horse hair spinning to supplement the income from agriculture. However, in the 20th century, the population declined as residents emigrated in search of jobs as agriculture became less manpower intensive. In 2005, agriculture still provides about 70% of the jobs in the municipality. Reisiswil has an area of . Of this area, or 63.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 29.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.0%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 29.4% is used for growing crops and 28.9% is pastures, while 5.0% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in hilly country in the Oberaargau region. The elevation in the municipality varies from . It consists of the village of Reisiswil and scattered hamlets including Gstell, Gemeindeweid and Adlihubel. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Aarwangen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Oberaargau.