St. Niklaus

St. Niklaus (French: Saint-Nicolas) is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. St. Niklaus is first mentioned in 1233 as chousun. In 1272 it was mentioned as ecclesia Sancti Nicholai de Chouson, Gebreitun de Gazun, 1388 in villa sti nicolai de chosun, fr Saint-Nicolas. St. Niklaus has an area, as of 2011, of 89.3 square kilometers (34.5 sq mi). Of this area, 9.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 21.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and 67.2% is unproductive land. The municipality is located in the Visp district. It is the main settlement in the Matter valley (also called the Nikolai valley). It consists of the settlements of Riedmatten, Dorf,...