not established until after the Bishopric of Basel was dissolved in 1797. The municipality was connected to the growing railroad network in 1874 and by the 1890s was home to several large factories. The establishment of the Tavannes Watch Co. in 1895 turned the village into a major watchmaking center. To house the growing population a number of Swiss chalet and Art nouveau style houses were built between 1900 and 1930. The Royal Cinema opened in 1918 and turned Tavannes into regional cultural center. The population dropped in 1966 when the Tavannes Watch factory closed and dropped again in 1986 when a major manufacturer closed. The population began to slowly increase with the construction of the A16 motorway. Geography Tavannes has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 48.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 41.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 10.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes. During the same year, housing and buildings made up 5.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.8%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.2% of the area Out of the forested land, 37.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 14.0% is used for growing crops and 18.0% is pastures and 16.1% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located near the source of the Birs river in the Birs valley. 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 Azure a Rooster hardi Or crested langued and jelloped Gules on a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert. Demographics Tavannes has a population () of . , 18.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 1.4%. Migration accounted for 1.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.2%. Most of the population () speaks French (2,835 or 84.0%) as their first language, German is the second most common (202 or 6.0%) and Italian is the third (122 or 3.6%). , the