History of the villages of the Franches-Montagnes district (Jura)
The 36 documented localities of the Franches-Montagnes district, in the canton of Jura. Each page covers the origin of the name, the main stages of its history and its remains, with sources.
Towns and villages 33
Belfond
On the ridge between Belfond and the Doubs stood Franquemont castle, taken from Charles the Bold's garrison in 1474 and destroyed in 1677 on the orders of the Bishop of Basel.
JUBiaufond
In 1747 two glassmakers from Blancheroche built a glassworks at Biaufond, on the Doubs and the French border, which operated until 1793.
JUCerniévillers
A municipality in the French period, the hamlet of Cerniévillers was joined to Les Enfers in 1817 but kept its own section for its pastures and forests until 1962.
JUChercenay
The hamlet of Chercenay, whose chapel is recorded from 1139, was the centre of the parish to which Soubey belonged, until Soubey supplanted it in the 17th century.
JUFornet-Dessus
A former village of the courtine of Bellelay, Fornet-Dessus saw the first wind turbine in the Jura go into service on 10 May 2007.
JUGoumois
The 1780 treaty set the border on the Doubs and cut Goumois in two: the church stayed in France, the school in Switzerland.
JULa Bosse
Jeanne Froidevaux, venerated as a saint in the Jura though never beatified, was born in 1596 at La Bosse, where her chapel has stood since 1719.
JULa Chaux-des-Breuleux
In 1918 the municipality sold part of its peat bogs to the Society of Chemical Industry in Basel. Worked until 1966, the bog has been protected since 1975.
JULa Goule
The lake of La Goule formed in 1356, when the Basel earthquake sent rocks into the Doubs. Since 1894 a power plant has harnessed its fall.
JULajoux
In the 14th and 15th centuries bloomery furnaces smelted iron ore at Lajoux. Since 1982 the village has made the girolle, used to scrape Tête de Moine cheese.
JULe Bémont
A Franches-Montagnes municipality of hamlets and farms, with the Sainte-Jeanne chapel at La Bosse, the Étang des Royes and the « gaubes » right, created in 1670 to keep a forest out of the foundries' reach.
JULe Cerneux-Godat
Occupied by troops during the Kulturkampf in 1874, this hamlet of Les Bois tried in vain to become a municipality in 1815 and again in 1871.
JULe Cerneux-Veusil
In 1904 and 1905 Muriaux closed the Le Cerneux-Veusil school to children from Saint-Imier and La Chaux-d'Abel, so Saint-Imier had to build its own school.
JULe Noirmont
Born around 1400 from the clearing of the Franches-Montagnes, Le Noirmont reaches down to the Doubs, where the La Goule power station was built in 1893-1894.
JULe Peuchapatte
Highest village in the canton of Jura (1'131 m), the youngest village community of the Franches-Montagnes, now part of the municipality of Muriaux (merger of 1 January 2009).
JULe Prédame
Bound to grind its grain at the mill of Bellelay Abbey, the hamlet of Le Prédame went to law from 1712 to 1748 to win the right to build its own mill.
JULe Roselet
It was at Le Roselet that the Bernese journalist and publisher Hans Schwarz set up the first home for old horses of his Foundation for the Horse in 1958.
JULes Bois
For centuries it was called « Les Bois Jean Ruedin », after one of the first settlers according to tradition. This Franches-Montagnes municipality joins a village and nine hamlets.
JULes Breuleux
A Franches-Montagnes village whose name reportedly recalls land cleared by fire. A parish from 1661, it became a watchmaking centre at the end of the 19th century.
JULes Cerlatez
Near the Étang de la Gruère, the hamlet's former school has housed the Centre Nature Les Cerlatez since 1993, devoted to wetlands and peat bogs.
JULes Emibois
A crossroads between Saignelégier, Les Breuleux and Le Noirmont, the hamlet drew many road and railway projects from 1766 on. It has had a winter school since 1787.
JULes Enfers
In 1428 Jehannenat Symonin, mayor of Les Enfers, signed the charter by which the prince-bishop granted the communities of the area the right of angal to improve the roads.
JULes Genevez
A village born of the settlement of Bellelay Abbey's lands, authorised in 1284 by the Prince-Bishop of Basel, which voted in 1975 to join the Jura by 223 votes to 6.
JULes Pommerats
Made a parish in 1783, Les Pommerats was the last parish created in the Franches-Montagnes. Its church of Saints-Pierre-et-Paul went up from 1784 to 1786.
JULes Vacheries
Once a dependency of the community of Les Breuleux, the hamlet saw the station of the Tramelan-Les Breuleux-Le Noirmont line built in 1913, between it and the village.
JUMalnuit
A small lordship of the barony of Montjoie, whose lands lay on both sides of the Doubs, Malnuit was ceded by France to the Prince-Bishopric of Basel in 1780.
JUMontfaucon
Franches-Montagnes village on a ridge along the Glovelier-Saignelégier road, former mother parish of the plateau, merged in 2009 with Montfavergier.
JUMontfavergier
Terraced village of the Franches-Montagnes, recorded in 1338 as « in loco dicto Monfauuargier », whose school of 1887 closed in 1984 as the population fell.
JUMuriaux
After the charter of franchise of 1384, the village's name spread to the whole high plateau, then called « Franche Montagne de Muriaux ».
JU · Lost villagePlaney
Lost village of the Franches-Montagnes on which Saint-Brais depended in 1275. It is said to have been burned by French soldiers in 1637.
JUSaignelégier
Since 1897 Saignelégier has hosted the Marché-Concours national de chevaux. From 1691 the village was the seat of the bailiff of the Franches-Montagnes.
JUSaint-Brais
In 1955 a Neanderthal incisor, the first Neanderthal remain known in Switzerland, was found in the caves of Saint-Brais.
JUSoubey
A village on the Doubs whose church of Saint-Valbert, consecrated in 1632, is said to be the only church in Switzerland north of the Alps with a stone roof.
Sites 3
Étang de la Gruère
Artificial pond from the 17th century surrounded by peat bogs, a nature reserve since 1943, on the territory of the municipality of Saignelégier, on the border with the canton of Bern.
JU · SiteGrottes de Saint-Brais
Three prehistoric caves in the hills east of the village of Saint-Brais, divided between Saint-Brais and Glovelier (Haute-Sorne), where the first Neanderthal remain known in Switzerland was discovered in 1955.
JU · SiteRuines de Spiegelberg
In 1424 the Bishop of Basel, Jean de Fleckenstein, took Spiegelberg castle, then pledged to the Neuchâtel-Bourgogne, by force of arms, starting a war with them.