History of the villages of the Gros-de-Vaud district (Vaud)
The 63 documented localities of the Gros-de-Vaud 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.
Assens
Village of the Gros-de-Vaud known for its shared (simultaneum) church, used for two and a half centuries by Catholics and Protestants, and for the Early Iron Age burial mound found in the Bois des Allemands.
VDBercher
Above the Menthue valley, the former fortified town of the lords of Cossonay, made a barony for the Saussure family in 1712, became the terminus of the LEB in 1889.
VDBettens
Former Federal Councillor Constant Fornerod, who died in 1899, is buried in the cemetery of Bettens, a Gros-de-Vaud village whose castle was built by the Bernese Mannlich family.
VDBioley-Orjulaz
A village born from a barn of the abbey of Lac de Joux in the forest of Oriola, mentioned as early as the 12th century, and merged with Assens in 2021.
VDBottens
Bottens never fully embraced the Reformation: Catholics and Protestants shared the same church until 1904.
VDBoulens
A grange of the Cistercian monks of Montheron, whose property and jurisdiction passed to the City of Lausanne at the Reformation.
VDBournens
From 1177 the canons of the Great St Bernard ran a rural priory at Bournens. Its remains survive, alongside a castle.
VDBoussens
A lordship of the de Saussure family from 1581 to 1798, who had a castle built here in the 17th century. Since the 1980s the village has grown strongly.
VDBretigny
On the east bank of the Talent, the Catholic half of a village long split in two, facing Saint-Barthélemy and its castle.
VDBretigny-sur-Morrens
Its town hall of 1806 housed the school, the bake oven and the cheese dairy under one roof. Since the 1960s Bretigny has been a residential municipality of the Lausanne conurbation.
VDChanéaz
Chanéaz owes its name to an oak wood. Its territory of 139 hectares stretches across both the cantons of Vaud and Fribourg.
VDChapelle-sur-Moudon
The church of Chapelle-sur-Moudon keeps a late 15th-century stained-glass window, one of the few in the canton to have escaped destruction at the Reformation.
VDCorrevon
On a molasse promontory between the Broye and the Mentue, Correvon keeps farms with cellars dug into the rock and a communal oven brought back into use in 1980.
VDCugy
Cugy calls itself the «village at the middle of the world»: its waters flow both to the Mediterranean and to the North Sea.
VDDaillens
Hidden under whitewash since the Reformation, the church's wall paintings, made around 1330, have been rediscovered and recognised as being of national importance.
VDDenezy
The village grew up around a chapel recorded as early as 929. Its lordship then stayed with the Cerjat family for nearly four centuries, from 1409 to 1798.
VDDommartin
According to a document of 908, a serf had to hold a red-hot iron to settle a dispute over the forests of Dommartin. His unharmed hand decided in the bishop's favour.
VD · TownÉchallens
A common bailiwick of Reformed Bern and Catholic Fribourg until 1798, Échallens gained in 1726-1727 a place of worship shared by both confessions.
VDÉclagnens
On the Talent, the Éclagnens mill, later a sawmill, is recorded from 1678 to 1973. In 2011 the village joined Goumoëns.
VDEssertines-sur-Yverdon
In 1315, at war with the Lausanne chapter, the prior of Saint-Maire besieged the castle of Essertines, laid waste to the village and took 37 horses from its people.
VDEtagnières
This Gros-de-Vaud village stayed Catholic at the Reformation and became a mixed municipality after 1640, its church serving both confessions.
VDFey
Fey takes its name from the beech tree, which also appears on its arms, and still has a granary built around 1498.
VDFroideville
On 26 September 1284 the imperial bailiff Richard de Corbières granted the people of the convent of Montheron the rights of the monks: Froideville counts that day as its birth.
VD · Merger 2011Goumoëns
Three communes joined in 2011, after a vote in which each said yes by 90 % or more.
VDGoumoens-la-Ville
At Goumoens-la-Ville, the choir of the church of Saint-Théodule reportedly dates from Carolingian times, which would make it the oldest church in the canton of Vaud.
VDGoumoens-le-Jux
In 1764 Albert de Haller bought the lordship of this small village on the Talent, born of the division of the old lordship of Goumoëns and once known as «Le Craux».
VD · Merger 2011Jorat-Menthue
Peney, grown from a Cistercian grange, Sottens and its 1931 radio transmitter: five Jorat villages form Jorat-Menthue in 2011.
VDLa Robellaz
An estate of the abbey of Lac de Joux, then of the La Lance charterhouse from 1318, La Robellaz became a noble fief in 1577, held by the Saussure, Hennezel, Charrière and Plessis-Gouret families.
VDLussery
Farming village on the right bank of the Venoge, whose mill, recorded from 1674, kept turning until 1969.
VDMalapalud
A Gros-de-Vaud hamlet named after a "bad marsh", Malapalud saw its dairy, founded in 1947, wound up in 2012 and its sawmill close in 2014.
VDMartherenges
In 1935 this Gros-de-Vaud hamlet was one of only two Swiss municipalities to approve the military organisation law unanimously (23 yes out of 23 voters).
VDMex
On the road from Lausanne to Jougne since the Middle Ages, Mex was the lordship of the Charrière family from 1585 to 1798, with two castles, before becoming a residential municipality.
VD · Merger 2013Montanaire
Nine Jorat villages, from Thierrens, recorded from 1004, to Martherenges, first named in 1412, joined into one commune on 1 January 2013.
VDMontaubion-Chardonney
In the 15th century the Belley family of Chardonney and the Jaccaud family of Montaubion kept the gate of the small town of Dommartin, seat of the castellany their hamlets belonged to.
VD · Merger 2011Montilliez
A new name for four communes joined in 2011, after an 81 % yes vote in March 2010.
VDMorrens
Abraham Davel was born in Morrens on 20 October 1670. The village, mentioned from 1147, became the lordship of the Saussure family, who had a castle built there in 1696.
VDNaz
Small village in the Gros-de-Vaud, owned by the Lausanne chapter until 1536, once home to three tileworks, merged in 2011 into the municipality of Montilliez.
VDNeyruz-sur-Moudon
Five bronze axes found in 1895 beneath an erratic boulder in the village gave their name to an archaeological type, the « Neyruz axe ».
VDOgens
Street village in the Gros-de-Vaud overlooking the Mentue, mentioned from 1166, known for the prehistoric rock shelter of La Baume, one of the canton's Mesolithic sites.
VDOppens
In 2025, after some fifty years without a public house, this Gros-de-Vaud village regained a café, « La Valeur du Temps », in the old schoolhouse.
VDOulens-sous-Echallens
In 1553 Oulens adopted the Reformation by 24 votes to 18, the first village of the bailiwick of Orbe-Echallens to do so.
VDPailly
In the early 14th century the small lordship of Pailly took the name Bourjod, after a castle built south of the village, of which only ruins remain.
VDPeney-le-Jorat
A village born from a grange of the Cistercian abbey of Hautcrêt, to which Albert de Dommartin gave the estate of Peney between 1134 and 1143.
VDPenthalaz
At the foot of Cossonay, on the Venoge, Penthalaz became an industrial hub thanks to the station, the funicular and the cable works.
VDPenthaz
A milestone from the Roman road between Lausanne and Orbe stands under the church porch and appears, as a gold column, on the coat of arms of Penthaz.
VDPenthéréaz
Village of the common bailiwick of Orbe-Echallens, which adopted the Reformation in 1619 and whose Catholics were forced to leave in 1675.
VDPeyres-Possens
Separated by the Maison de Commune, Peyres and Possens seem to have formed a single municipality by 1764, yet their inhabitants still call themselves «from Peyres» or «from Possens».
VDPoliez-le-Grand
Torn between Bern and Fribourg in the shared bailiwick of Orbe-Échallens, this Gros-de-Vaud village abolished Catholic worship on 12 August 1619.
VDPoliez-Pittet
Religiously mixed after the Reformation, Poliez-Pittet founded a Catholic school in 1663 and a Protestant one in 1758. Its 1750 clock tower is called the «turlet».
VDRueyres
Its coat of arms, adopted in 1929, takes up that of the Dortans, lords of Bercher, with oak leaves recalling the origin of its name.
VDSaint-Barthélemy
Formerly Goumoens-le-Châtel, the village took the name of its Saint-Barthélemy chapel, and its church served both Catholics and Reformed after the Reformation.
VDSaint-Cierges
Under Bernese rule, Saint-Cierges, on the Jorat plateau, was the seat of a castellany of the bailiwick of Yverdon. Its church served several neighboring villages.
VDSottens
From 1931 to 2010 Sottens, on the Jorat plateau, housed the national medium-wave transmitter of Swiss radio.
VDSugnens
A village named in a bull of Pope Alexander III, whose name derives from a Germanic man's name, Sunia or Sunnia. An early medieval necropolis was found there in 1790.
VDSullens
In Sullens, the temple rebuilt in 1712-1713 for the local lord Jean-Rodolphe Thormann has a granary under its roof where the tithe was stored.
VDThierrens
On 25 January 1798 local guards at Thierrens killed two French hussars. The incident served as a pretext for French troops to enter Switzerland three days later.
VDVillars-le-Terroir
Its church of Saint-Nicolas has two pulpits, one Catholic and one Protestant. Its inhabitants are reportedly nicknamed «Molliets», «Râpes» and «Noyés».
VDVillars-Lussery
Less than a kilometre from Lussery, Villars shared its seigneury and court until 1798, but not its parish. The two villages merged in 1999.
VDVillars-Mendraz
A former village of the Vaud Jorat, born from a medieval clearing under monastic influence, today a hamlet of the municipality of Jorat-Menthue.
VDVillars-Tiercelin
A Jorat village whose name is said to mean «the estate of Tiercelin». In 1233 a knight of Goumoëns granted the inhabitants a right of use in the forests.
VDVuarrengel
Recorded from 1184 as « Warrengel », the hamlet reportedly bears a diminutive of the name of Vuarrens, its neighbour. It is now where the municipality's residential growth is concentrated.
VDVuarrens
At the crossroads of the Lausanne-Yverdon-les-Bains and Moudon-Orbe roads, Vuarrens had a Roman villa excavated in 1828 and was a castellany of the Bernese bailiwick of Yverdon.
VDVufflens-la-Ville
In 2015, on the route of the RC 177 road, some twenty archaeologists excavated a Celtic settlement of the 2nd century BC at Vufflens-la-Ville, on the Venoge.