Author: Maarten Koning

Le Locle, its Town Hall and the Watch Industry

Le Locle was mentioned for the first time in a document in 1151 as the property of the seigneurs of Valangin and, afterwards, the Counts of Neuchâtel.

The heydays came in the nineteenth century with the development of the watch industry. The Town Hall symbolizes this small city’s prosperity, cosmopolitanism and grandeur.

The world is the market for the (Horlogerie) industries and services. The Time and Town planning area (L’Espace Temps et Urbanisme) in the building is dedicated to the history of the watch industry.

Musée d’horlogerie du Locle, Château de Monts

The Town Hall, built after the First World War, is a harmonious construction of different architectural styles: neo-Renaissance, Art Nouveau and local.

The architecture, fresco and sculptures make it a work of total art, including the goddess guarding the source of living water in front of the building.

The sculpture was crafted in 1930 to remind the authorities of good governance. (Source and further information: www.lelocle.ch).

Le Locle and its Watch industry

The Mural of Montcherand

The Romanesque church of Montcherand was built in the eleventh century and  donated to the monastery of Baulmes.

Documents confirm the foundation of the monastery of Baulmes in the 7th century and its subordination to the abbey of Cluny not later than 1123.

The clergymen of Payerne and Baulmes shared the same prior in 1356. This prior was also Lord of Montcherand.

The wall paintings of the church of Montcherand repainted after the introduction of the Reformation in 1536.

A photograph of some original fragments in 1902 was the beginning of a complete restauration project. The church is a national monument nowadays.

The Romanesque church in Donatyre, a small villages near Avenches, shows a copy of the fresco of Montcherand. This copy was painted in 1907.

(Source and further information: K. Queijo, L’église Saint-Etienne de Montcherand, Montcherand, 2018).

Les Cent Suisses

The Historical Museum of Vevey presents the city’s heritage and region (Lavaux).
The museum is housed in a 16th-century castle.
There are two collections: a collection of ancient keys, locks and boxes and the works by the painter F.A.L. Dumoulin (1753-1834). Dumoulin witnessed the Franco-English naval battles in the West Indies (1775-1783). He painted these events.
The museum also pays attention to the Fête des Vignerons in a separate section (Musée de la Confrérie des Vignerons, www.confreriedesvignerons.ch).
The Confrérie des Vignerons became the owner of the building in 1986 and has its headquarters on the first floor. Les Cent Suisses, the famous Hundred Swiss, have participated in the Fête since 1819 and 2019 with women, les  Suissesses.
(More information: www.museehistoriquevevey.ch).