Saint-Prex

Saint-Prex , whose old name is Basuges, is a common Suisse of the Canton of Vaud, located in the District of Morges.

History and geography

Saint-Prex is at the edge of the Léman in Switzerland. The name of the city comes from the popular deformation of Sanctus Prothasius , attested since the 16th century. From the 18th century, the scholars made of it the form sciolist Saint-Prothais . This guardian saint was bishop of Lausanne in the middle of the 7th century, under the reign of the frank king Clovis II. Its name ended up replacing the old name of the village, Basuges (of Latin AD basilicas ).

The place is occupied as of the Neolithic by a lake village, then by Helvètes and later by the Roman : the village was on a strategic way of importance, the via strata which went from the Col of the Large-Saint-Bernard until Lyon. It thus put Rome in communication with the valley of the Rhine and the valley of the Rhone. Lastly, towards the beginning of the 5th century, were established in the area of the tribes Burgonde S, as a series of tombs attests it whose oldest Roman mausoleums found under the church seem to have been the center.

The vast funerary basilica of Basuges, dedicated originally to the Marie Holy-Virgin, and its field very early seem to have belonged to the church cathedral Notre-Dame Marie of Lausanne (as of the 6th century), then were a time confiscated by some Carolingian king who gave them to a line of lords of the place, in exchange of their honest services. The last of them, certain Réginold, ends up returning them to the church cathedral of Lausanne on August 6th 885 to make sure of its eternal rest and the prayers of the clergy lausannois. In 968, the field increases field of Marcy, bequeathed by the Amico deacon, and in 972, of a mill and a vine between the rivers Aubonne and Venoge.

At the beginning of the 11th century, the field of Saint-Prex, among other properties, falls in the chapter of Lausanne: a group of thirty Chanoine S exerts from now on his seigneuriaux rights on the area. It gives thus to four " colons" grounds (" colonges") who must be emphasized and cultivated. Towards 1200, teaches us the Cartulaire from Lausanne written by Conon d' Estavayer (13th century), the field also comprises two " lunages" , of dimensions such as it is two grounds takes one month lunar them to plow and twenty-four " cheseaux" , i.e. twenty-four pieces containing a house ( put ) and a garden or a place, therefore in any case, twenty-four families. These dwellings, which one did not find the trace owing to the fact that they were not built into hard, were to be gathered in agglomeration, with a kind of barricade, organized around from one of the great Roman fields ( villa ) of Dracy or Marcy. The order and the protection of these subjects are ensured by knights that the Chapter names and maintains in place by putting them for the benefit of a stronghold, a ground, of a house, with some incomes in exchange of their military services. For the temporal businesses, more particularly justice and the police force, the Chapter has in Saint-Prex an permanent representative called Villicus , or later Maior , which belongs to the military class. In 1224, the Chapter names finally a Chapelain in Saint-Prex, who was to achieve all the religious acts of the parish and to assist the priest places from there in his ministry.

In 1234, the Chapter of Lausanne decides transfer of the village at the edge of the lake on the peninsula, then to strengthen it with the assistance “of piles side lake and a ditch side ground. One envisages moreover, according to B. Dufour, a space at the edge of the lake to build a tower there, a vault, a body of building, a court, a stable and a furnace for the Chapter. It will be the castle of Saint-Prex. ”. This transfer and the construction of a Château was envisaged for some time. Indeed, pressure increasing, as well political as military, of the Maison of Savoy, which made reign the insecurity in the campaigns depending on the Church of Lausanne, obliged the Chapter to re-examine its defense system.

Monuments

Quoted medieval

Distinctions

It obtains the Prix Wakker in 1973.

Personalities

Oscar Forel, Psychiatrist
Isabelle Chassot, director of the State education, the Culture and the Sport and Adviser of State of the Canton of Freiburg (2001), born in Saint-Prex on March 28th, 1965.
Catherine Colomb, writer, born in Saint-Prex (1892-1965).
Andre Bugnon, (1st middle-class man of honor)

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