Grenchen

Grenchen (French: Granges) is a municipality in the district Lebern in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.

Grenchen
Municipality
City Hall
Seal
Grenchen
Coordinates: 47°11′27.5″N 7°23′47.4″E
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Solothurn
District	Lebern
Government
• Mayor	François Scheidegger
Area
• Total	26.01 km2 (10.04 sq mi)
Population  (December 5, 2000)
• Total	15,938
• Density	612.8/km2 (1,587/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
Postal code	2540
Area code	2546
Website	Official website

With a population of around 16,000 people, it is one of the largest municipalities in the canton of Solothurn.

History

In the year 1000, a castle was built in Grenchen and was lived in for a few hundred years, but the name Grenchen was not first used until 1131. Its name comes from the Gallo-Romanic word graneca, which means by the grainery.