History of the villages of the Aigle district (Vaud)
The 34 documented localities of the Aigle district, in the canton of Vaud. Each page covers the origin of the name, the main stages of its history and its remains, with sources.
Aigle
The first French-speaking territory conquered by Bern, in 1475, this Chablais market town turned its castle, once home to the Bernese governors, into the Museum of Vine and Wine.
VDArveyes
In January 1301 Arveyes already formed a community that appointed its own representatives. Today the Ollon hamlet has developed less than Villars and Chesières, its neighbours in the resort.
VDBex
At Bex, Frankish troops crushed Lombard bands in 574. Since the late 17th century the town has worked its salt mines.
VDChesières
A former mountain dizain of Ollon, Chesières saw two international boarding schools founded there, La Garenne in 1947 and Aiglon College in 1949. Together with Villars it forms the resort of Villars-Chesières.
VDChessel
On the right bank of the Rhône, a Romanesque church on 10th-century foundations, with traces of Roman or early medieval settlement beneath it.
VDCorbeyrier
In 1584 a landslide from the Luan cirque swept down as far as Yvorne and destroyed many buildings.
VDFenalet-sur-Bex
Fenalet was the first home of the Thomas family, foresters and botanists: Abraham Thomas collected plants for Albrecht von Haller, and the Thomasia alpine garden bears their name.
VDFrenières-sur-Bex
On the Chalet de la Patte-de-l'Ours in Frenières, the paw of the last bear killed in the area was nailed up.
VDGryon
In 1719 fire struck Gryon. The walls and stone bell tower of the chapel of Saint-Jean, mentioned since the 13th century, withstood it.
VDHuémoz
At about 1'000 m, on a hillside of Ollon, Huémoz held a fair from 1584 to 1904 and, from 1732 to 1884, was home to one of the first sacred-music choirs in the Pays de Vaud.
VDLa Comballaz
On the Col des Mosses road, log-built farmhouses from the mid-17th century, and carpenters who kept to tradition until well after 1900.
VDLa Forclaz
Around 1400 the young people of La Forclaz received the mountain of Perche. The alpine pasture was worked jointly until 1974.
VDLavey
Found by chance near the Rhône in 1831, the sulphur spring of Lavey is said to be the hottest in Switzerland.
VDLavey-les-Bains
Lavey-les-Bains grew from a sulphurous spring on the banks of the Rhône, at 62 to 69 degrees, described as the hottest thermal water in Switzerland.
VD · Merger 1852Lavey-Morcles
Born of a merger in 1852, the commune came under the administration of the Council of State after the political crisis of 1904.
VDLe Sépey
In 1441 the co-lords of Aigremont grant the valley's peasants two annual fairs at Le Sépey, the oldest clustered village of the Ormonts.
VDLes Diablerets
At the foot of the highest point in the canton of Vaud (3'210 m), Les Diablerets built a cable car in 1964 that allows skiing on the glacier even in summer.
VDLes Mosses
In 1475 the Bernese crossed the Col des Mosses to seize Aigle: the oldest written record of a crossing of this pass, already used in the Bronze Age.
VDLes Plans-sur-Bex
Mere pastureland for the farmers of Frenières until the early 18th century, the Plans valley became a centre of alpine botany, with Haller and the Thomas family.
VDLes Posses-sur-Bex
Beneath the hamlet runs the tunnel of the Bex-Villars railway, built, to save money, with stones from the old Seguin castle.
VDLeysin
In 1946 Leysin housed an average of 3'500 patients and had up to eighty sanatoriums, before antibiotics brought about their decline.
VDMorcles
A mountain municipality at 1,159 metres, at the foot of the Dents de Morcles, Morcles was merged with Lavey in 1852 against its will.
VDNoville
Built on slight rises in the plain, Noville and the hamlet of Crebelley long had to cope with the floods of Lake Geneva and the shifting course of the Rhône.
VDOllon
On the hill of Saint-Triphon at Ollon, Bronze Age metalworkers left hoards of copper lenses, at the foot of a territory that climbs to the Chamossaire.
VDOrmont-Dessous
In the central Grande-Eau valley, Le Sépey, La Forclaz and a church at Cergnat recorded from 1279. At Les Mosses a sledge lift launched winter tourism in 1938.
VDOrmont-Dessus
The Ormonans fought the revolutionary troops in 1798. At Les Diablerets their municipality has hosted the International Alpine Film Festival since 1970.
VDPanex
Its salt spring, discovered in 1554 and perhaps the first in Switzerland, was worked until 1832 on the slopes above Ollon.
VDRennaz
After the Isbrand Daux conspiracy in 1589, the Bernese seized the Grand-Clos castle at Rennaz, where the Riviera-Chablais hospital opened in 2019.
VDRoche
In the barn of the hospice that the monks of the Great Saint Bernard kept until 1853, Roche has housed the Swiss Organ Museum since 1983.
VDSaint-Triphon
Quarried since the Middle Ages, the black « marble » of Saint-Triphon, in fact a fine limestone, is said to have been used for the rood screen of Lausanne Cathedral and the royal monastery of Brou.
VDVers-l'Église
Barely a dozen buildings, including the parsonage and the municipal inn, around the former chapel of Saint-Théodule: yet this is the main village of Ormont-Dessus.
VDVillars-sur-Ollon
Around 1830 a retired colonel rented a few rooms to summer visitors in a chalet above the village. In 1913 the Villars-Palace, a large luxury hotel, opened.
VD · TownVilleneuve
Around 1214 Thomas I of Savoy granted franchises to the «new town of Chillon», the first Savoyard foundation in the region, at the eastern end of Lake Geneva on the Great St Bernard route.
VDYvorne
In 1584 a landslide destroyed much of Yvorne. The village was rebuilt further east and planted the L'Ovaille vineyard on the debris.