Opfikon ( German pronunciation: [ˈɔpfikoːn] ; in the local Swiss German dialect : [ˈopfikxə] ) is the name of a municipality in the Swiss canton of Zürich , located in the district of Bülach .
55-529: Blazon : Party per fess gules and argent, in chief a half length portrait of a man wearing a coat sable with a white collar, in base cross pattee sable. Opfikon is situated right to the northeast of the city of Zürich in the Glatt Valley , near Zurich Airport , and thus lies within the greater Zürich area. As it belongs to the region known as the Zurichois Lowlands ( Zürcher Unterland ) ,
110-432: A blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms , flag or similar emblem , from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb to blazon means to create such a description. The visual depiction of a coat of arms or flag has traditionally had considerable latitude in design, but a verbal blazon specifies the essentially distinctive elements. A coat of arms or flag is therefore primarily defined not by
165-497: A Boeing 767-300ER for long-haul operations. As part of the partnership with REGA (Swiss Air Rescue), a 757 was redesigned by Belair to be used as a rescue aircraft for repatriations in case of disasters. Air Berlin acquired 49% of Belair in 2007 and fully owned it after October 2009. This increased Air Berlin's presence in Switzerland and provided Migros customers access to more flights. While Air Berlin owned Belair, Belair
220-455: A Crown proper with bands Azure (for Fiume ); over all an escutcheon Barry of eight Gules and Argent impaling Gules on a Mount Vert a Crown Or issuant therefrom a double-Cross Argent (for Hungary ) . The field of a shield in heraldry can be divided into more than one tincture , as can the various heraldic charges . Many coats of arms consist simply of a division of the field into two contrasting tinctures. These are considered divisions of
275-462: A French or an anglicised form: for example, a cross pattée or a cross patty ; a cross fitchée or a cross fitchy . In modern English blazons, the anglicised form tends to be preferred. Where the French form is used, a problem may arise as to the appropriate adjectival ending, determined in normal French usage by gender and number. "To describe two hands as appaumées , because the word main
330-644: A Marten proper beneath a six-pointed star Or (for Slavonia ); IV. per Fess Azure and Or over all a Bar Gules in the Chief a demi-Eagle Sable displayed addextré of the Sun-in-splendour and senestré of a Crescent Argent in the Base seven Towers three and four Gules (for Transylvania ); enté en point Gules a double-headed Eagle proper on a Peninsula Vert holding a Vase pouring Water into the Sea Argent beneath
385-447: A complex coat of arms. Other armorial objects and devices – such as badges , banners , and seals – may also be described in blazon. The noun and verb blazon (referring to a verbal description) are not to be confused with the noun emblazonment , or the verb to emblazon , both of which relate to the graphic representation of a coat of arms or heraldic device. The word blazon is derived from French blason , ' shield ' . It
440-453: A long distance and could be easily remembered. They therefore served the main purpose of heraldry: identification. As more complicated shields came into use, these bold shapes were set apart in a separate class as the "honorable ordinaries". They act as charges and are always written first in blazon. Unless otherwise specified they extend to the edges of the field. Though ordinaries are not easily defined, they are generally described as including
495-417: A part of it. Opfikon has a population (as of 31 December 2020) of 20,954. As of 2007, 41.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 21.1%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (72.5%), with Italian being second most common ( 5.5%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 3.1%). The age distribution of the population (as of 2000)
550-478: A pattern of vertical (palewise) stripes is called paly . A pattern of diagonal stripes may be called bendy or bendy sinister , depending on the direction of the stripes. Other variations include chevrony , gyronny and chequy . Wave shaped stripes are termed undy . For further variations, these are sometimes combined to produce patterns of barry-bendy , paly-bendy , lozengy and fusilly . Semés, or patterns of repeated charges, are also considered variations of
605-497: A picture but rather by the wording of its blazon (though in modern usage flags are often additionally and more precisely defined using geometrical specifications). Blazon is also the specialized language in which a blazon is written, and, as a verb, the act of writing such a description. Blazonry is the art, craft or practice of creating a blazon. The language employed in blazonry has its own vocabulary , grammar and syntax , which becomes essential for comprehension when blazoning
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#1732779480512660-426: A result of the new-established cantonal constitution , changed its capital to Bülach . In 1918 the two civil communities were merged in the already existing political commune of Opfikon. Due to the growing importance of the former hamlet Glattbrugg , the name Oberhusen is the longer the less used, and the municipality as a whole is now often called Opfikon-Glattbrugg to draw a distinction to Opfikon proper as
715-459: A shield, so the rule of tincture can be ignored. For example, a shield divided azure and gules would be perfectly acceptable. A line of partition may be straight or it may be varied. The variations of partition lines can be wavy, indented, embattled, engrailed, nebuly , or made into myriad other forms; see Line (heraldry) . In the early days of heraldry, very simple bold rectilinear shapes were painted on shields. These could be easily recognized at
770-444: A short form of a name like Otfried or something similar or as a formation from a supposed stem *upp- , forming names in west Germanic , which would have developed to OHG *opf-/upf- . The oldest ensured evidence of the name (Obtinchofa/Obfinchoven) dates back to 1153; the attribution of an earlier record Ubinchova in a document from the year 744 is doubtful. Blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology ,
825-474: Is Opfikon itself, situated right from the river Glatt , whereas on the other side of it lies Oberhusen . Glattbrugg , as its name ("bridge over the Glatt") suggests, originally was not a settlement, but a passage of some importance. However, the name was later also used for a smithy and a mill that were built near the bridge at the left-hand riverbank, and round which eventually developed another settlement. When
880-542: Is an 11-minute ride from Zürich Hauptbahnhof by S-Bahn. Opfikon is also served by the Stadtbahn Glattal , a light rail system that interworks with the Zürich tram system , with several stops in the municipality. Routes 10 and 12 cross the municipality via Glattbrugg railway station on their journeys from Zurich Airport to, respectively, central Zürich and Stettbach railway station . Route 11 runs along
935-689: Is any object or figure placed on a heraldic shield or on any other object of an armorial composition. Any object found in nature or technology may appear as a heraldic charge in armory. Charges can be animals, objects, or geometric shapes. Apart from the ordinaries, the most frequent charges are the cross – with its hundreds of variations – and the lion and eagle . Other common animals are stags , wild boars , martlets , and fish . Dragons , bats , unicorns , griffins , and more exotic monsters appear as charges and as supporters . Animals are found in various stereotyped positions or attitudes . Quadrupeds can often be found rampant (standing on
990-409: Is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 18.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 68.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.4%. In Opfikon about 64.4% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule ). The historical population is given in
1045-660: Is feminine in French, savours somewhat of pedantry. A person may be a good armorist, and a tolerable French scholar, and still be uncertain whether an escallop-shell covered with bezants should be blazoned as bezanté or bezantée". The usual convention in English heraldry is to adhere to the feminine singular form, for example: a chief undée and a saltire undée , even though the French nouns chef and sautoir are in fact masculine. Efforts have been made to ignore grammatical correctness, for example by J. E. Cussans , who suggested that all French adjectives should be expressed in
1100-542: Is found in English by the end of the 14th century. Formerly, heraldic authorities believed that the word was related to the German verb blasen ' to blow (a horn) ' . Present-day lexicographers reject this theory as conjectural and disproved. Blazon is generally designed to eliminate ambiguity of interpretation, to be as concise as possible, and to avoid repetition and extraneous punctuation. English antiquarian Charles Boutell stated in 1864: Heraldic language
1155-401: Is four, but the principle has been extended to very large numbers of "quarters". The third common mode of marshalling is with an inescutcheon , a small shield placed in front of the main shield. The field of a shield, or less often a charge or crest, is sometimes made up of a pattern of colours, or variation . A pattern of horizontal (barwise) stripes, for example, is called barry , while
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#17327794805121210-521: Is most concise, and it is always minutely exact, definite, and explicit; all unnecessary words are omitted, and all repetitions are carefully avoided; and, at the same time, every detail is specified with absolute precision. The nomenclature is equally significant, and its aim is to combine definitive exactness with a brevity that is indeed laconic . However, John Brooke-Little , Norroy and Ulster King of Arms , wrote in 1985: "Although there are certain conventions as to how arms shall be blazoned ... many of
1265-474: Is the world's largest service company for airlines and airports. Hotelplan is the second-largest Swiss tour operator, and its subsidiary Interhome provides around 50,000 holiday homes and apartments in 31 countries. The Nuance Group operates 400 shops at 60 airports in 20 countries. Trivadis is an independent IT services company with 700 employees at 14 locations in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Denmark. VBG Verkehrsbetriebe Glattal AG operates public transport in
1320-473: The canton , the label , and flaunches . Ordinaries may appear in parallel series, in which case blazons in English give them different names such as pallets, bars, bendlets, and chevronels. French blazon makes no such distinction between these diminutives and the ordinaries when borne singly. Unless otherwise specified an ordinary is drawn with straight lines, but each may be indented, embattled, wavy, engrailed, or otherwise have their lines varied. A charge
1375-537: The coat of arms of Nunavut , for which a round shield is specified). The main conventions of blazon are as follows: Because heraldry developed at a time when English clerks wrote in Anglo-Norman French , many terms in English heraldry are of French origin. Some of the details of the syntax of blazon also follow French practice: thus, adjectives are normally placed after nouns rather than before. A number of heraldic adjectives may be given in either
1430-409: The cross , the fess , the pale , the bend , the chevron , the saltire , and the pall . There is a separate class of charges called sub-ordinaries which are of a geometrical shape subordinate to the ordinary. According to Friar, they are distinguished by their order in blazon. The sub-ordinaries include the inescutcheon , the orle , the tressure, the double tressure, the bordure , the chief ,
1485-462: The dative plural form, used as a locative . This origin is yet more obvious at the congenerous place names ending in -(i)kofen , frequent in the cantons of Bern , Solothurn , and also in Thurgovia ; place names of this formation are dated to the 7th/8th century. The first part of the name traces back to an anthroponym *Opfo , that, however, as such is not on record and is regarded either as
1540-617: The Balair name. By this time, Swissair was a majority owner. In 1993, Balair and CTA – Compagnie de Transport Aérien were merged and formed a new airline named BalairCTA . For political reasons, the registered office of the company was in Geneva and the accounting department in Basel. The operational base was moved to Zürich. Despite restructuring and mass layoffs, the Swissair charter business
1595-935: The Glattal and Furttal regions and in the Effretikon/Volketswil area on behalf of the Zurich Transport Association (ZVV) as the company with market responsibility (MVU). These are joined by Mondelez Europe and Cadillac Europe as well as the Swiss airline Zimex. Belair Airlines , a subsidiary of Air Berlin , was headquartered in Glattbrugg. In addition Swissport , Germania Flug , and Zimex Aviation have their head offices in Glattbrugg. Kraft Foods Europe has its head office in Glattpark, Opfikon. China Airlines , at one point, operated
1650-493: The Switzerland Branch office in Glattbrugg. Opfikon has an unemployment rate of 4.63%. As of 2005, there were 80 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 1510 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 121 businesses in this sector. 14456 people are employed in the tertiary sector , with 752 businesses in this sector. The Schule Opfikon ,
1705-457: The arms small and inconspicuous marks called brisures , similar to charges but smaller. They are placed on the fess-point , or in-chief in the case of the label. Brisures are generally exempt from the rule of tincture . One of the best examples of usage from the medieval period is shown on the seven Beauchamp cadets in the stained-glass windows of St Mary's Church , Warwick. Belair Airlines Belair , legally Belair Airlines AG ,
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1760-582: The charter business by acquiring two Vickers VC.1 Vikings in June 1957. In 1959, Swissair acquired a 40% stake in Balair. Two Swissair DC-4s were added to the fleet and later the DC-6 came into service in 1961. During the Biafran airlift (1967–71), chartered aircraft, including C-97 Stratocruisers , delivered humanitarian aid to a remote Biafran airstrip in eastern Nigeria . The airline's first jet aircraft
1815-408: The commercial register on 16 October 2001. The minor name change meant it was possible to repaint the two Migros-owned Boeing 757s with very little effort. 120 Balair employees were employed by the new company. The first Belair commercial flight took place on 3 November 2001, departing from Zürich. Flights were mainly to Mediterranean resorts. Besides the two Boeing 757s it operated, Belair also leased
1870-469: The communal school, has classes in the Lättenwiesen, Oberhausen, Mettlen and Halden campuses in Glattbrugg. The Musikschule is in Glattbrugg. Opfikon is served by two railway stations, Glattbrugg and Opfikon , which are on different lines but only some 250 metres (820 ft) apart. Opfikon is served by Zürich S-Bahn line S7 , whilst Glattbrugg is served by S-Bahn lines S9 and S15 . Opfikon
1925-414: The field per pale and putting one whole coat in each half. Impalement replaced the earlier dimidiation – combining the dexter half of one coat with the sinister half of another – because dimidiation can create ambiguity. A more versatile method is quartering , division of the field by both vertical and horizontal lines. As the name implies, the usual number of divisions
1980-405: The field. The Rule of tincture applies to all semés and variations of the field. Cadency is any systematic way to distinguish arms displayed by descendants of the holder of a coat of arms when those family members have not been granted arms in their own right. Cadency is necessary in heraldic systems in which a given design may be owned by only one person at any time, generally the head of
2035-523: The following table: Among Christian churches, there is the Arulmihu Sivan Temple located in Glattbrugg. The results of the last elections for the municipal parliament (2 April 2006)were as follows: The President of the municipality is Walter Fehr ( Gemeindeverein ‚Municipal Association’) In the 2007 National Council elections the most popular party was the SVP which received 48.3% of
2090-465: The landscape is rather flat. The lowest point lies 420.4 m above sea level at the border to the neighboring commune of Rümlang , the highest one in the Hard forest, 481 m above sea level. 37% of the municipal territory is covered by settlement area, 17% by wood, 27% by farming ground, 17.6% by transport infrastructures and 1.2% by waters. The present municipality traces back to two settlements, one of which
2145-409: The left hind foot). Another frequent position is passant , or walking, like the lions of the coat of arms of England . Eagles are almost always shown with their wings spread, or displayed. A pair of wings conjoined is called a vol . In English heraldry the crescent , mullet , martlet , annulet , fleur-de-lis , and rose may be added to a shield to distinguish cadet branches of a family from
2200-502: The masculine singular, without regard to the gender and number of the nouns they qualify, thus a chief undé and a saltire undé . Full descriptions of shields range in complexity, from a single word to a convoluted series describing compound shields: Quarterly I. Azure three Lions' Heads affronté Crowned Or (for Dalmatia ); II. chequy Argent and Gules (for Croatia ); III. Azure a River in Fess Gules bordered Argent thereon
2255-500: The senior line of a particular family. As an armiger 's arms may be used "by courtesy", either by children or spouses, while they are still living, some form of differencing may be required so as not to confuse them with the original undifferenced or "plain coat" arms. Historically, arms were only heritable by males and therefore cadency marks had no relevance to daughters; in the modern era, Canadian and Irish heraldry include daughters in cadency. These differences are formed by adding to
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2310-417: The senior line. These cadency marks are usually shown smaller than normal charges, but it still does not follow that a shield containing such a charge belongs to a cadet branch. All of these charges occur frequently in basic undifferenced coats of arms. To marshal two or more coats of arms is to combine them in one shield. This can be done in a number of ways, of which the simplest is impalement : dividing
2365-419: The southern boundary of the municipality on its journey from central Zürich to Auzelg in the neighbouring municipality of Wallisellen . Opfikon is formed with the place name suffix -(i)kon/-(i)ken , that is widely spread in the area of the cantons of Zürich , Argovia and Lucerne and that has been merged from the suffix -ing- ("followers of the mentioned one") and the word hof ("landed estate") in
2420-502: The summer and was mainly financed by federal subsidies and mail transportation for the Swiss post office. On 5 October 1952, the Basel electorate voted for the creation of a limited company. Soon, the second Balair was founded in January 1953, with Hans Peter Tschudin elected as the first president. In its early years, Balair was active in flight training, maintenance, and handling Swissair aircraft at Basel-Mulhouse Airport. Balair entered
2475-435: The supposedly hard and fast rules laid down in heraldic manuals [including those by heralds] are often ignored." A given coat of arms may be drawn in many different ways, all considered equivalent and faithful to the blazon, just as the letter "A" may be printed in many different fonts while still being the same letter. For example, the shape of the escutcheon is almost always immaterial, with very limited exceptions (e.g.,
2530-600: The vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (15.5%), the FDP (9.9%) and the CVP (9.4%). Thanks in part to its favourable location between the city centre and Zurich airport, several large companies have their headquarters in Opfikon. Adecco is one of the world's largest providers of personnel services and at the same time one of the largest employers on the planet. Swissport
2585-478: The whole political order was changed during the Helvetic Republic (1798–1803), Opfikon became part of the municipality of Kloten , that pertained to the district of Bassersdorf . Oberhusen, lying on the other side of the Glatt, fell to the commune of Seebach belonging to the district of Regensdorf . After Napoleon 's Act of Mediation (19 February 1803) the administration of the canton of Zürich
2640-534: Was a Swiss charter airline headquartered in Glattbrugg operating out of Zürich Airport and EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg . It was a subsidiary of Air Berlin and operated under the Air Berlin brand name until 31 March 2017. During the 2017 summer season, it flew on behalf of its sister company Niki and was shuttered by then-bankrupt Air Berlin on 28 October 2017. Basler Aviation AG - Balair
2695-470: Was also Hotelplan. Balair also had two Boeing 767-300ERs for long-haul operations. However, the new Balair was affected by the failure of Swissair. On 5 October 2001, the last Balair flight landed in Zürich. The Boeing 767s were returned to the lessor. After consulting Migros (its parent company), Hotelplan founded a new charter airline named Belair and transferred their Boeing 757s to it. It entered into
2750-464: Was announced that Belair would shut down all routes from EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg . On 1 April 2017, the four Airbus A321-200s began to operate on behalf of Niki and switched from Air Berlin to Niki flight numbers on routes to EU destinations. Belair ceased operations on 28 October 2017. In December 2017, it was reported that Belair lacked the funds to pay outstanding salaries and other expenses and might face bankruptcy . These are
2805-857: Was founded by Balz Zimmermann in 1925 in Basel . The name Balair is a reference to the French name of Basel: Bâle. The first route was from Basel to Freiburg and Mannheim . In 1929, Balair grew at Basel Airport , the largest airport in Switzerland, with direct flights to Zürich , Geneva , Lyon , Karlsruhe and Frankfurt . In response to the Great Depression , Balair (based in Basel) and Ad Astra Aero (based in Zürich) merged on 1 January 1931 to form Swissair , headquartered in Zürich. Up to that point, Balair had carried over 18,000 passengers, 320 tons of cargo, and 143 tons of mail. The company only flew in
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#17327794805122860-744: Was managed from Berlin and Air Berlin only published consolidated financial statements. Air Berlin Switzerland (Air Berlin pilots), the CHS Switzerland (Air Berlin flight attendants), and Belair were combined to form the new company Belair on 1 January 2010. Belair flew from Zürich, Basel, and Geneva to Mediterranean destinations and the Canary Islands. The aircraft used to have Belair signage combined with Air Berlin's corporate design, but then wore Air Berlin's livery. Due to bilateral traffic rights, certain routes to non-EU countries continued to use Belair's IATA code, 4T. On 15 January 2017, it
2915-552: Was rearranged again, and Opfikon and Oberhusen were united into a commune named Opfikon, which appertained now to the likewise new-formed district of Bülach . In the course of the Restoration after the end of the Napoleonic era, the commune of Opfikon, consisting of the two civil communities Opfikon and Oberhusen (with Glattbrugg) established in 1815, became part of the chief district (Oberamt) of Embrach , that in 1831, as
2970-624: Was the Convair 990 Coronado and then the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 entered service followed by a Douglas DC-8-63CF which it flew on routes to Colombo , Bangkok and Rio de Janeiro . In 1979, Balair added a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 to its fleet. By 1982, Balair became an all-jet airline and by 1986, the Airbus A310-300 and MD-82 were the mainstay of the fleet. Later, Swissair operated charter flights using
3025-528: Was unprofitable and operations ended in 1995. Short-haul operations were transferred to Crossair and long-haul operations to Swissair. In 1997, Swissair's charter business was outsourced again, and on 1 November 1997, BalairCTA resumed operations as a subsidiary of Swissair, reverting to the Balair name. On short and medium-haul routes, two Boeing 757-200s were operated exclusively for tour operator Hotelplan and its subsidiaries ESCO-Reise and M-Travel. The lessee
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