Renan is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (Jura Bernois). History Renan is first mentioned in 1372 as Renens. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Rennen, however, that name is no longer used. The village was owned by the collegiate church of Saint-Imier which was part of the seigniory of Erguel under the Prince-Bishop of Basel. After the 1797 French victory and the Treaty of Campo Formio, Renan became part of the French Département of Mont-Terrible. A few years later, it became part of the Département of Haut-Rhin. After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, Renan was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. Following an unsuccessful revolt in Neuchâtel in 1831, a number of the insurgents took refuge in Renan. Following the French Revolution of 1848, the people of the neighboring canton of Neuchâtel made preparations for a republican coup. A republican leader Ami Girard raised a body two hundred volunteers and on 1 March 1848 set out from Renan to join the Neuchâtel Revolution. By 8pm that evening, Neuchâtel Castle fell to the volunteers and on 5 March, ambassadors from Switzerland had recognized the new government and the Republic of Neuchatel was formed. The village was part of the parish of Erguel and converted to the Reformed faith along with the rest of the Erguel. In 1627 the Prince-Bishop approved the construction of a village church in Renan. It was completed in 1631 and was renovated in 1976-77. During the late 17th century the village economy was booming as the watch industry spread in the Saint-Imier valley. In 1874, the Biel-Les Convers railway connected the village to the national railway network. The Great Depression in the 1930s devastated the Swiss watch industry and the economy of Renan. However, the watch industry held on and grew once again after World War II. In the 1970s the watch industry was once again devastated and this time the local industry did not survive. At the beginning of the 21st century Renan's economy was dominated by agriculture. In 2005, the agricultural sector provided over one-third of all jobs in the municipality. Geography Renan has an area of . Of this area, or 59.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 33.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or