La Chaux-de-Fonds

La Chaux-de-Fonds is a city located in the Jura mountains in Switzerland. It is located in the Canton of Neuchâtel at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometers from the French border. After Geneva and Lausanne, it is the third largest city in the French-speaking part of the country.

History

The region has first been inhabited about 10'000 years ago (Epipaleolithic). A skull and other traces have been found in caves nearby.

In the middle of the 14th century, the forests found there have been colonised from the south. The region was under the authority of the lords of Valangin. Agriculture was the main activity. The first church has been built in 1528. The city became at the end of the 16th century an important crossroad between Neuchâtel and Franche-Comté.

The community has grown during the Thirty Years' War, mainly because of its strategic position for trade. But economic activity really begins in the 18th century with the development of lace and watchmaking industry. Pierre Jacquet-Droz and his family is one of the most famous watchmakers of this time. He is best known for his automata.

In 1794, a great fire burnt down the entire city. Charles-Henri Junod created the new city plan in 1835 as a grid, as you can see on the picture on the right. The central avenue (pictured on the right) is named the Avenue Léopold Robert. Down the center of this street are trees cut in a boxy shape, with their tops flat the entire length of the downtown business district. Public belief is that these trees are lopped off at precisely 1000 meters above sea-level, as the train station is situated at 997 meters above sea-level and they are nearly 3 meters tall.

Culture

The city holds the international watchmaking museum, showing the history of watches.

Art Nouveau had a great influence on architecture and culture in the city.

The daily newspaper L'Impartial is published in La Chaux-de-Fonds since 1880.

Economy

The city's economy is based on industry and watch manufactories. Famous watchmaking manufactories include Girard-Perregaux founded in Geneva in 1791, Corum, Breitling and others.

Notable people

Its most famous native sons are the architect Le Corbusier, born here as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret in 1887, Louis Chevrolet, born in 1878, founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company and Blaise Cendrars, novelist and poet, born as Frédéric Louis Sauser in 1887.

Other notable people include the French painter Louis-Leopold Robert born here in 1794 and Numa Droz, a politician, born here in 1844.

Also, Georges B. Dreyfus, Professor of Religion at Williams College, graduated from La Chaux-de-Fonds with a Bachelors Degree in 1969.

External links

References