Oberlangenegg

Oberlangenegg is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Oberlangenegg is first mentioned in 1308 as Langonegga. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a Bronze Age dagger which was discovered in the Lindenmoos. For most of its history Oberlangenegg and Unterlangenegg were combined into a single municipality and Oberlangenegg was the sparsely populated, heavily wooded part. The village of Schwarzenegg, located on the border with Unterlangenegg, was more densely populated and was an economic and religious center of the Zulg valley. Schwarzenegg was located on the Steffisburg-Oberemmental road and in 1693 a large parish church was built to help curb the growing popularity of the Anabaptist faith in the region. Today the municipality is still mostly agrarian and rural with over half of the local jobs in agriculture. In 2005 a wood working factory opened in the village and provides some manufacturing jobs. Oberlangenegg has an area of 9.16 km (3.54 sq mi). As of the 2006 survey, a total of 4.15 km (1.60 mi) or 45.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 4.47 km (1.73 mi) or 49.0% is forested.