Monthey, Canton of Valais, Switzerland

🇨🇭 Monthey is the capital of the district of Monthey in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

History The castle in the town centre was built in 950 on a hill, the first houses of Monthey surrounded it. Monthey is first mentioned in 1215 as Montez. At the 13th century, the counts of Savoy owned the village and its area. In 1352, the count Amédée VI gave more freedom to the inhabitants. During the first part of the 14th century, there were several industries including silk production and grinding mills.

Geography Monthey has an area, as of 2009, of 28.6 square km (11.0 sq mi). Of this area, 7.86 km² (3.03 sq mi) or 27.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 12.91 km² (4.98 sq mi) or 45.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 5.47 km² (2.11 sq mi) or 19.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.43 km² (0.17 sq mi) or 1.5% is either rivers or lakes and 1.91 km² (0.74 sq mi) or 6.7% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.9% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 8.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.3%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.6% of the area Out of the forested land, 40.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.6% is used for growing crops and 4.8% is pastures and 16.2% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.5% is in lakes and 1.0% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 5.1% is unproductive vegetation and 1.6% is too rocky for vegetation.

The municipality is the capital of the Monthey District. This urban centre of the Chablais region is located on an alluvial fan of the Vieze on the left bank of the Rhône, at the entrance to Val d'Illiez and the Pas de Morgins which leads to Val d'Abondance. It consists of the town of Monthey, the villages of Outrevièze and Choëx and exclaves in Collombey-Muraz. Monthey is located on the west side of the Rhône valley, south to the Leman Lake.

Sport and culture In winter 2005, Monthey was chosen to be the host of the EYOF (European Youth Olympic Festival).

Monthey is home to the BBC Monthey, 1996 and 2005 Champion of the Swiss Basketball League. The team plays its home games at the Reposieux.

FC Monthey is the town's football club, founded in 1910.

Every winter Monthey hosts a very well known Carnaval in the entire region. In 2018 the Carnaval will be called "Carnaval Bestial" in French. It will occur from 8 to 13 February 2018.

Economy Monthey is important to Swiss industry, with the former chemical company Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis, Syngenta and Cimo) and the metallurgical company Giovanola, there is an oil refinery in Collombey-Muraz, near Monthey. The city is close to the famous winter sports region, the Portes du Soleil.

This city is also home to Bolliger & Mabillard, world-famous roller coaster designers.

As of  2010, Monthey had an unemployment rate of 6.7%. As of 2008, there were 37 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 25 businesses involved in this sector. 3,420 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 146 businesses in this sector. 5,453 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 616 businesses in this sector. There were 6,788 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.8% of the workforce.

In 2008 the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 7,689. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 19, of which 15 were in agriculture and 3 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3,330 of which 2,062 or (61.9%) were in manufacturing and 696 (20.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 4,340. In the tertiary sector; 1,087 or 25.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 125 or 2.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 287 or 6.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 69 or 1.6% were in the information industry, 156 or 3.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 405 or 9.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 203 or 4.7% were in education and 1,504 or 34.7% were in health care.

In 2000, there were 5,264 workers who commuted into the municipality and 2,700 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.9 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 3.7% of the workforce coming into Monthey are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 7.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.7% used a private car.

Religion From the 2000 census, 9,790 or 70.3% were Roman Catholic, while 1,381 or 9.9% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 163 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.17% of the population), there were 5 individuals (or about 0.04% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 335 individuals (or about 2.40% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 8 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who were Jewish, and 744 (or about 5.34% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 28 individuals who were Buddhist, 10 individuals who were Hindu and 15 individuals who belonged to another church. 888 (or about 6.37% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 725 individuals (or about 5.20% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education In Monthey about 4,644 or (33.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,361 or (9.8%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 1,361 who completed tertiary schooling, 53.6% were Swiss men, 28.7% were Swiss women, 11.1% were non-Swiss men and 6.6% were non-Swiss women.

As of 2000, there were 256 students in Monthey who came from another municipality, while 389 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Monthey is home to the Médiathèque de Monthey library. The library has (as of 2008) 41,818 books or other media, and loaned out 95,847 items in the same year. It was open a total of 265 days with average of 20 hours per week during that year.

The Stained Glass Arts and Fine Arts College is located in Monthey.