Sierre

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Sierre

Canton	Valais
District	Sierre
Coordinates	46°18′N 7°32′E
Population	14,355 (December 2002)
Area	19.2 km²
Elevation	533 m
Postal code	3960
SFOS number	6248
Mayor	Manfred Stucky (CVP/PDC)
Website	www.sierre.ch
Twin towns	Aubenas (France), Cesenatico (Italy), Delfzijl (Netherlands), Schwarzenbeck (Germany), Zelzate (Belgium)
Sierre

Sierre seen from Crans-Montana.

Sierre (German: Siders) is the capital of the district of Sierre in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

It has a population of 14,355. It is situated at the language border of the German-speaking upper part of the "Wallis" and the French-speaking "Valais". As a German-speaking minority lives in Sierre, it counts as one of the three official bilingual towns in Switzerland. Sierre is starting point for the tourist sites of the Val d'Anniviers comprising the villages of Vercorin, Chandolin, St-Luc Vissoie, St-Jean Chandolin, Grimentz, Zinal and Ayer. Sierre is connected with Crans-Montana by a cable car.

At the beginning of the twentith century, Sierre became economically important as very early aluminium smelting is enabled by its access to hydroelectricity. Today the aluminium factory 'Alcan' employs 1200 workers in Chippis and Sierre.

Sierre is host to a local wine museum (Musée Valaisan de la Vigne et du Vin) and of a museum dedicated to the memory of Rainer Maria Rilke who lived there until his death and is buried in nearby town of Raron.