History of the villages of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut district (Vaud)
The 34 documented localities of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut 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.
Blonay
Built in the 12th century by the de Blonay family, sold in the 18th century and bought back by them in 1806, the village castle is still lived in by the family of the same name.
VD · Town · Merger 2022Blonay - Saint-Légier
Blonay accepted the merger with Saint-Légier-La Chiésaz by a margin of only 54 votes, on 27 September 2020.
VDBrent
Brent has held its fair since it was authorised in December 1486, and still organises it every autumn in the hills above Montreux.
VDCaux
A former pasture above Montreux, Caux saw the Caux-Palace open in 1902, then the largest and most luxurious hotel in Switzerland.
VDChailly-Montreux
Iron hooks on the façades recall a former stopping place: travellers tied their horses here before eating, drinking and sometimes sleeping in the village.
VDChamby
Terminus of the Blonay-Chamby museum railway, which carried 20'000 passengers in its very first season in 1968. Its depot at Chaulin houses about 80 narrow-gauge vehicles.
VDChardonne
From Lake Geneva up to Mont-Pèlerin, Chardonne first belonged to the Abbey of Saint-Maurice, until 1079. It is twinned with Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire, birthplace of the writer Jacques Chardonne.
VDChâteau-d'Œx
It was from Château-d'Œx, the largest commune in the canton of Vaud, that Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones took off by balloon in 1999 to fly round the world.
VDChernex
Above Montreux, a village whose inhabitants have been nicknamed « les Lanternes », it is said, since the great fire of 1814.
VDClarens
Rousseau set « La Nouvelle Héloïse » here and Byron passed through in 1816: Clarens, on Lake Geneva, grew from 200 inhabitants in 1798 to 2'513 in 1900.
VDCorseaux
At En Seyton, graves from 3650-3380 BC held up to seven burials each. On the lakeshore, Le Corbusier built the Villa « Le Lac ».
VDCorsier-sur-Vevey
Charlie Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life at the Manoir de Ban, now the Chaplin's World museum, and lies in Corsier cemetery.
VDFenil-sur-Corsier
Standing 85 metres above the Veveyse, the Pont de Fenil, inaugurated on 4 March 1904, carried the Vevey-Châtel-Saint-Denis railway until 1969: 230 metres long, 602 tonnes of steel.
VDFlendruz
The Montreux-Oberland Bernois railway crosses the Flendruz ravine on two 41.6 m steel spans, carried by a pier 26 m high.
VDGlion
Rainer Maria Rilke stayed four times at the Valmont clinic above Montreux, and died there on 29 December 1926.
VDJongny
At Jongny, the Hôtel du Léman has stood since 1930 on the plot of the former Saint-Laurent chapel, itself built over an early medieval cemetery.
VDL'Etivaz
On 24 September 1999 L'Etivaz alpine cheese became the first designation of origin entered in the federal register.
VDLa Lécherette
In 1905 the municipality decided that La Lécherette's five schoolchildren would be taken by horse every day to the school at L'Etivaz.
VDLa Tine
Exposed to the floods of the Sarine, the hamlet of Cuves, today La Tine, was moved to higher ground in 1702.
VD · TownLa Tour-de-Peilz
A new town founded in 1282 by Count Philip I of Savoy, La Tour-de-Peilz houses the Swiss Museum of Games in its castle. Gustave Courbet died here in exile in 1877.
VDLe Châtelard
On 16 April 1961 the women of Le Châtelard voted on the merger that would create Montreux, ten years before women's suffrage at federal level.
VDLe Mont-Pèlerin
Maurice Ravel stayed at the Mon Repos clinic in 1934. In 1947 Friedrich Hayek gathered at the Hôtel du Parc the conference that founded the Mont Pelerin Society.
VDLes Avants
From 10 to 12 January 1910 this mountain village above Montreux, at about 1'000 metres, hosts the first European ice hockey championship.
VDLes Monts-de-Corsier
The farming part of Corsier-sur-Vevey until the 20th century, while the lower part lived from vines, the hamlet is home to a priory of the Society of Saint Pius X announced in 2023.
VDLes Moulins
In 1814 the carpenter Moïse Henchoz built the Lion-d'Or inn at Les Moulins, with the cut-out brackets that carry the eaves of the village's wooden houses.
VDLes Planches
At Territet, a hamlet of Les Planches, one of Switzerland's oldest funiculars has run since 1883. Empress Elisabeth of Austria stayed there several times between 1893 and 1898.
VD · TownMontreux
Its name is thought to come from a "small monastery" that nobody has identified. The present commune only dates from 1962, born of the merger of Le Châtelard and Les Planches.
VDRossinière
The Grand Chalet of Rossinière, built from 1752 to 1756 for ripening cheese, is one of the largest in Switzerland. The painter Balthus lived there from 1977 to 2001.
VDRougemont
In 1481 a monk of its Cluniac priory printed an edition of the « Fasciculus temporum » here, possibly the fifth printed book in Switzerland.
VDSaint-Légier-La Chiésaz
Two hamlets each born around a place of worship, and the Château d'Hauteville, one of the best-preserved 18th-century country residences in Switzerland.
VDTerritet
A hamlet of five houses in 1693, Territet received Emperor Franz Joseph in the Belle Époque, and Empress Elisabeth of Austria stayed here four times.
VD · TownVevey
Daniel Peter developed milk chocolate here in 1875: once a Roman vicus on the Great St Bernard road, Vevey is also home to the Fête des Vignerons since 1797 and to Nestlé's headquarters.
VDVeytaux
Chillon Castle stands on its territory, and in 1961 Veytaux refused to merge with Les Planches and Le Châtelard to form Montreux.
VDVillard-sur-Chamby
At the spot called En Saumont, André Kern photographed two skiers between 1900 and 1910: one of the oldest records of skiing in the Vallon de Villard, above Chamby.