Léchelles
Léchelles (; ) is a former municipality in the district of Broye, in the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland. On 1 September 1994 the former municipality of Chandon merged into the municipality of Léchelles, keeping the name Léchelles. On 1 January 2016, the former municipalities of Domdidier, Dompierre, Léchelles and Russy merged to form Belmont-Broye. History Léchelles is first mentioned in 1243 as Leschieres. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Leitern, however, that name is no longer used. Geography Léchelles had an area, , of . Of this area, or 55.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 37.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.7%. Out of the forested land, 36.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 27.9% is used for growing crops and 26.2% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The former municipality is located in the Broye district, between Fribourg and Payerne. It consists of the linear village of Léchelles and the village of Chandon. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Bend wavy Argent between two Mullets of the same. The coat of arms is new from the 1994 merger. The wavy stripe comes from the coat of arms of Chandon, while the two stars represent the two municipalities. Demographics Léchelles had a population () of 751. , 10.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 16%. Migration accounted for 11.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 4.2%. Most of the population () speaks French (457 or 90.9%) as their first language, German is the second most common (41 or 8.2%) and English is the third (3 or 0.6%). There is 1 person who speaks Italian. , the population was 50.1% male and 49.9% female. The population was made up of 266 Swiss men (44.3% of the population) and 35 (5.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 266 Swiss women (44.3%) and 34 (5.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 201 or about 40.0% were born in Léchelles and lived there in 2000. There were 177 or 35.2% who were born in the same canton, while 86 or 17.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 26 or 5.2% were born outside of Switzerland. The age distribution, , in Léchelles is; 75 children or 14.9% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 58 teenagers or 11.5% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 69 people or 13.7% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 77 people or 15.3% are between 30 and 39, 69 people or 13.7% are between 40