La Chaux-de-Fonds

La Chaux-de-Fonds is a city located in Suisse, in the Canton of Neuchâtel, in the area of the the Jura. La Chaux-de-Fonds owes its fame with the Horlogerie and the Microtechnique.

Geography

It is the third town of French-speaking Switzerland after Geneva and Lausanne, compared to the number of its inhabitants. It is located at an altitude of 1000 meters, which makes of it the second highest city of Switzerland behind Davos. The inhabitants of the Chaux-de-Fonds affirm that it is about the European upper town comprising more 30  000 inhabitants, but it is actually only about one legend (the town of Ávila is populated and is at a higher altitude).

History

The commune of the Chaux-de-Fonds was founded in 1656 in a valley located in the middle of the mountains neuchâteloises. It was entirely destroyed by a Incendie in 1794. Brace Perret-Nice, Main engraver, was the first to establish a plan and to rebuild the city. Charles-Henri Junod continued the rebuilding according to a checkerboard plan in 1835 and 1841. The city is designed according to the system, in vogue at the time, of the " Sonnenbau" where one builds in direction of the sun.

Economy

It is, with the city close to the Locle, the large capital of the Horlogerie, and lodges many clock making manufactures.

Political life

The city is directed since 1936 by an executive of five members, elected by the people since 2004, (Town council) which currently include/understand 2 Socialists, 1 POP, 1 liberal and 1 UDC. The legislative power is the General advice (41 members). The left parties are majority since the elections of 1912 (except 1915-18).

The presidency of the city is annual. She was exerted in

  • 2004-05 per Mrs. Claudine Stähli-Wolf (POP),
  • 2005-06 per Mr. Didier Berberat (PS), national adviser,
  • 2006-07 per Mr. Pierre Hainard (UDC),
  • 2007-08 per Mr. Laurent Kurth (PS).

Their predecessors were the Socialists:

  • Justin Stauffer (1918-1924)
  • Paul Stähli (1924-1936)
  • Hermann Guinand (1936-1948)
  • Gaston Schelling (1948-1959)
  • Marcel Itten (1959-1960))
  • Andre Sandoz (1960-1970)
  • Maurice Payot (1970-1980)
  • Francis Matthey (1980-1988)
  • Charles Augsburger (1988-2004).

Monuments

  • crematory (Art nouveau) the
  • the Turkish Villa (Le Corbusier)
  • the white Villa (Le Corbusier)
  • the synagog
  • Town hall, set up in 1803
  • Monument of the Republic (of Charles Eplattenier bronzes)
  • reformed Church built in 1794-96
  • Théâtre with Italian (the blue hour) built in 1837

Distinctions

  • It obtains the Prix Wakker in 1994.
  • In 2007, it is classified 10th with the prize list of the Cities of energy and played the part of pionnière in this field in particular by setting up a sophisticated system of remote heating.

Company

A good part of the population the top (Locle, La Chaux-de-Fonds, St-Imier) with pleasure cultivates the reputation progressist of this working city which chose to live in the countryside . Since decades, one finds a great interest to defend of the humanistic, artistic values and more recently ecologists through a multitude of independent political projects, even self-managed.

Art and culture

It is the only Swiss city which one can regard as a center of the Art nouveau. One developed to with it a particular style, the Style fir tree. The cultural life is very rich there in particular thanks to the Center of culture ABC, which gathers a cinema of art and test having gained many prices, a theater and a restaurant. The city also shelters the Kultura Centro Esperantista , an arts center esperantist.

With the city of Locle, the Chaux-de-Fonds was placed by the Federal council on the indicative list for the inscription with the world heritage of the humanity of UNESCO. The candidature will be deposited in 2007 and will be examined in 2009.

Theater

Music

Others

  • Libraries of the city (several funds of exceptional files and a record library|very provided discotheque)

Festivals

  • the Beach of the Six-Pumps (spectacles of street, takes place in August).
  • 2300 Plan 9 (rocambolesque and fantastic cinema, during the weekend of Easter).
  • Dahu festival (music, first edition at the Chaux-de-Fonds in April 2006).
  • the Amplitudes (modern music, next edition in May 2007).
  • Ecolades (various artistic creations presented by the universities of Switzerland, 2nd edition in 2007)

Sports events

  • international Meeting of athletics Résisprint

Transport

  • the city is the rail junction of regional transport. Lines of trains CF connect it to Bienne, Neuchâtel and with the Locle. Private lines of trains join the frank mountains (line of CJ in direction of Saignelégier) and the valley of Sagne (line TRN). Moreover, it is, since 2006, terminus of the motorized trains (rail-cars diesels) coming from Besancon (France) via Morteau. The line was previously limited to the station of the Locle-City.
  • Network of Trolley bus and urban bus.
  • One can practice the soft mobility also there thanks to the pink bicycles. Last Friday of the month, the Vélorution takes place on the avenue Léopold Robert.

Museums

  • International museum of Clock industry
  • museum of the Art schools
  • museum of history, installed in a middle-class house of the middle of the 19th century, it presents in particular the framework of life of the Chaux-de-Fonniers of formerly - in particular the room of a clock and watch maker-peasant.
  • museum of natural history and zoological gardens
  • the Marguerite villa, open in 1999 accommodates the private museum presenting the collections old and contemporary Mark
  • the country and artisanal museum, located in a Jurassic farm of the beginning of the 17th century, presents the framework of life of a clock making peasant such as it could the being at the origins of the clock industry in the mountains neuchâteloises.

Media

  • Impartial the
  • the Sentinel, daily newspaper disappeared in 1971

Higher education and research

Tourism

  • La Chaux-de-Fonds belongs to the country of the precision Watch Valley . It is also a stage city of the “Road of the Clock industry” which of Geneva, through the Swiss Jura leads us to Basle. The stages lime-of-fonnières are:
  • the international museum of clock industry
  • the villa Marguerite
  • the museum of history
  • the country and artisanal museum
  • the Turkish Villa (work of Le Corbusier)

Since 2005, La Chaux-de-Fonds east also principal stage city on the route " Art & Architecture" from Switzerland Tourism.

Personalities

Famous personalities born with the Chaux-de-Fonds

Personalities having lived with the Chaux-de-Fonds

See too

External bonds

  • Official site
  • La Chaux-de-Fonds (Article of the historical dictionary of Switzerland)
  • Geographical location
  • Seen satellite Wikimapia

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