Roches () 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 Roches is first mentioned in 1308 as Roschers. For most of its history the village was owned by provost of Moutier-Grandval under the Prince-Bishop of Basel. After the 1798 French invasion, Roches became part of the French Département of Mont-Terrible. Three years later, in 1800 it became part of the Département of Haut-Rhin. After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, Roches was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. In 1791 a glass factory opened was built in the village. In 1817 Célestin Châtelain acquired the factory and operated it until its closure in 1840. Two years later, he opened the Verrerie de Moutier glass factory in nearby Moutier, which grew to become the most important window glass company in Switzerland. Even while the glass factory was in operation, the village remained generally agrarian. In 1876 the Basel-Moutier railroad opened a station in Roches and the village became a local industrial center. However, this industrial growth was short-lived and today only small firms operate in Roches. Geography Roches has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 23.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 71.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.3% is unproductive land. During the same year, housing and buildings made up 0.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.8%. Out of the forested land, 68.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.6% is pastures and 12.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located along the Birs river in the Moutier Canyon. On 31 December 2009 District de Moutier, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Arrondissement administratif Jura bernois. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Gules and Argent a Monastery Counterchanged. Demographics Roches has a population () of . , 6.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed