Watch-making and City-planning in Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds

16 June 2019

The unique grid planning of the cities Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds (canton Neuchatel) emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and was based on the watch-making industry.

Both cities were destroyed by fires (in 1794 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, 1833 and 1844 in Le Locle). Their reconstruction was based on a consensus of private and public interests to balance hygiene, social needs and production efficiency of the watch-making industry. Both cities are UNESCO World Heritage sites.

(Source and further information: http://urbanisme-horloger.ch)

Impressions of  La Chaux-de-Fonds

One of the biggest synagogues in Switzerland