History of the villages of the Montagnes region (Neuchâtel)
The 19 documented localities of the Montagnes region, in the canton of Neuchâtel. Each page covers the origin of the name, the main stages of its history and its remains, with sources.
Towns and villages 14
Brot-Plamboz
Formed in 1888 by the union of Brot-Dessus and Plamboz, on the old salt and wine road, the municipality saw water reach all its houses in 1956.
NELa Brévine
On 12 January 1987 La Brévine recorded -41.8 °C, its absolute cold record. The village, born of medieval land clearing, was recognised as a municipality in 1624.
NE · TownLa Chaux-de-Fonds
Destroyed by fire in 1794, the village was rebuilt on a grid around watchmaking. Le Corbusier's birthplace became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2009 together with Le Locle.
NELa Chaux-du-Milieu
Granted as a fief in 1310 to people from Morteau and later settled from Le Locle, La Chaux-du-Milieu keeps the Grand-Cachot-de-Vent, a wooden double farmhouse built in 1530-1531.
NELa Corbatière
At the end of the La Sagne valley, a hamlet where the Grison, an erratic boulder from Monte Rosa, lies in the fields, and where generations of children have learned to ski since 1950.
NELa Sagne
The royalist uprising of 1856 set out from La Sagne, a long street village in the Neuchâtel Mountains first mentioned in 1332.
NELe Cerneux-Péquignot
Under the 1814 Treaty of Paris, France ceded Le Cerneux-Péquignot to Neuchâtel but kept Montlebon, home of the family that founded the village.
NE · TownLe Locle
The first organised community in the Neuchâtel mountains, hence its nickname "Mother commune", Le Locle was rebuilt for watchmakers after three great fires.
NELes Brenets
The only Neuchâtel village on the northern slope of the Jura, on the Doubs and its lake, rebuilt on a geometric plan after the fire of 1848.
NELes Eplatures
Begun in 1847 with the support of the King of Prussia, the church of Les Eplatures lost its bell tower in the storm of 24 July 2023.
NELes Planchettes
In the 19th century Les Planchettes was the main timber supplier of the region's sawmills. In 2005 the primary sector still provided 53 % of its jobs.
NELes Ponts-de-Martel
Born of land clearance on the edge of the marshes, the village's name recalls the bridges over the marsh, mentioned in 1376. It grew in the 19th century with its watch factories.
NELes Taillères
Hamlet on the Lac des Taillères, whose waters, before vanishing into a sinkhole, drove threshing mills, fulling mills and saws from the 16th century.
NEMiéville
At number 110 in Miéville, a hamlet of La Sagne, the teacher and draughtsman Oscar Huguenin spent five years of his youth.
Sites 5
Barrage du Châtelot
Franco-Swiss arch dam 74 m high on the Doubs, commissioned in 1953, on the territory of the municipality of Les Planchettes, the largest in the Doubs valley.
NE · SiteGrand-Cachot-de-Vent
In ruins, the double farmhouse of 1530-1531 narrowly escaped a fire drill in 1964. Restored, it opened an art gallery in 1968 that exhibited Paul Klee and Picasso.
NE · SiteLac des Taillères
At the Moulin du Lac, the waters of the Lac des Taillères vanish into a sinkhole directly linked to the source of the Areuse.
NE · SiteMoulins souterrains du Col-des-Roches
Around 1660 Jonas Sandoz had the cave where the Bied disappears, at the Col-des-Roches, dug out to install five water wheels. Ruined, he sold the site in 1690.
NE · SiteSaut du Doubs
About 12'300 years ago a landslide blocked the Doubs: the Lac des Brenets is its remnant, and the water flowing around the dam drops 27 metres.