Le Châtelard

Canton of Vaud · District: Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut · 12'222 inhabitants in 1960, last census before the merger into the commune of Montreux on 1 January 1962

Part of the municipality of Montreux

Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Population over time Must-see historical sites Remains Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Le Châtelard

The place name « Châtelard » is a diminutive of the word château, itself derived from the Latin castellum, and designates a fortified place of modest size. It refers directly to the château built on the rocky spur overlooking Clarens, around which the seigneury and then the commune of the same name were structured. A first wooden fortification is said to have been built on this site around the year 1000 by the Burgundians, but this information still needs to be cross-checked and no certain archaeological find attests to its existence. It was the stone fortress built in the 15th century that permanently attached the name « Le Châtelard » to the locality, and then to the whole communal territory that formed around it.

Founding of Le Châtelard

The territory that would become the commune of Le Châtelard originally belonged to the parish of Montreux, sold in 1295 by the bishop of Sion to Girard d'Oron. Having become lord of Le Châtelard, Girard d'Oron founded the village of Clarens at the end of the 13th century, raised to a mayoralty forming a métralie with Tavel and Planchamp. A treaty of 18 August 1317 then divided the territory of Montreux between the lords of Oron, who kept Le Châtelard, and the counts of Savoy, who received Les Planches, an administrative separation that would last more than six hundred years. The seigneury of Le Châtelard passed in 1338 to François de La Sarraz. In 1352, Count Amadeus VI of Savoy charged him with building a stone fortress on the site, but the work was not actually undertaken until nearly a century later: it was Jean de Gingins, husband of Marguerite de La Sarraz, who had the château that survives today built between 1440 and 1442. Around this fortress and its castellany the seigneury was structured, and then, after the Bernese conquest of 1536, the jurisdiction of Le Châtelard, attached to the bailiwick of Chillon. It was with the Vaud Revolution of 1798 and the establishment of the canton of Vaud that Le Châtelard became a fully fledged political commune of the district of Vevey, eventually bringing together seventeen villages and hamlets, including Crin, Sâles, Chêne, Chernex, Sonzier, Les Avants, Clarens, Chailly, Brent and Baugy.

History of Le Châtelard

around the year 1000. According to a tradition repeated by several non-academic sources, a first wooden fortification, the « Châtelard », is said to have been built on the site by the Burgundians; information still to be cross-checked, no certain archaeological find attests to it.

1280. First known written mention of Clarens, a hamlet located within the territory of Le Châtelard.

1295. The bishop of Sion sells the parish of Montreux to Girard d'Oron, who becomes lord of Le Châtelard.

late 13th century. Girard d'Oron founds the village of Clarens, raised to a mayoralty forming a métralie with Tavel and Planchamp.

18 August 1317. A treaty divides the territory of Montreux between the lords of Oron, who keep Le Châtelard, and the counts of Savoy, who receive Les Planches.

1338. The seigneury of Le Châtelard passes to François de La Sarraz.

1352. Count Amadeus VI of Savoy charges François de La Sarraz with building a stone fortress on the site of Le Châtelard.

1440-1442. Jean de Gingins, husband of Marguerite de La Sarraz, has the château of Le Châtelard built as it survives today, fitted with a cubic keep comparable to the Saint-Maire château in Lausanne.

1476. During the Burgundian Wars, the château is looted and partly burned by troops from Gruyère, the Gessenay and the Pays-d'Enhaut. Some accounts also mention a massacre of the baron and hundreds of men during this episode; information still to be cross-checked.

1536-1798. Under Bernese rule, Le Châtelard is attached to the bailiwick of Chillon.

1549. Charles de Challand acquires the château of Le Châtelard.

1571-1573. The town of Vevey owns the château.

1708. Emmanuel Bondeli, a Bernese bailiff, acquires the château; his family will keep it until 1798.

1798. The Vaud Revolution ends Bernese rule. Le Châtelard becomes a commune of the canton of Vaud, district of Vevey, then with about 1'860 inhabitants.

1861. The railway reaches Clarens, marking the beginning of Le Châtelard's tourist boom.

1869. A landing stage for boats on Lake Léman is built at Clarens.

1888. Inauguration of the Vevey-Montreux-Chillon electric tramway line serving Clarens, considered the first electric tram line in Switzerland.

1900. The hamlet of Clarens alone has 2'513 inhabitants, reflecting the tourist and hotel boom of the Vaud Riviera.

1910. The population of the commune of Le Châtelard reaches 11'859 inhabitants.

1930. A Protestant temple is built at Clarens.

1937. The Reformed church of Clarens is consecrated.

1953. The commune of Le Châtelard takes the name « Montreux-Châtelard ».

16 April 1961. The citizens of Le Châtelard, Les Planches and Veytaux vote on the proposed communal merger; women take part in the vote, ten years before the introduction of women's suffrage at federal level. Le Châtelard and Les Planches accept the merger, but Veytaux rejects it and remains an independent commune.

1 January 1962. The merger between Le Châtelard and Les Planches takes effect: the two communes cease to exist to form the new commune of Montreux. Alfred Vogelsang, the last syndic of Le Châtelard, becomes the first syndic of Montreux.

1983. The château of Le Châtelard is acquired by the Fornerod family.

2015. The château of Le Châtelard is sold to a Geneva investment fund.

Population of Le Châtelard

1'521

1764

1'860

1798

2'970

1860

11'859

1910

12'222

1960

Historic sites in Le Châtelard

Château of Le Châtelard. Built between 1440 and 1442 by Jean de Gingins on the orders of the Count of Savoy, this château, fitted with a cubic masonry keep topped with brick, is listed as a cultural property of national importance. Around 1770, the painter Gottfried Locher decorated the great hall with a landscape scheme. According to some sources not confirmed by the Dictionnaire Historique de la Suisse (still to be cross-checked), Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy, who became pope under the name Felix V, is said to have stayed there with his court in the 15th century. The estate, now private, includes a vineyard within the Lavaux AOC.

Clarens temple. Built in 1930 and consecrated in 1937, this Protestant temple was the first Reformed place of worship of its own for the hamlet of Clarens, which until then had remained attached to the parish of Montreux.

Clarens railway station and landing stage. The railway station, opened in 1861, and then the landing stage for boats on Lake Léman, built in 1869, accompanied Clarens's tourist and hotel boom from the second half of the 19th century onward, reinforced by the arrival of the electric tramway in 1888.

Les Avants. A mountain village among the seventeen localities of the former commune of Le Châtelard, Les Avants experienced its own tourist and climatic development, distinct from that of the lakeshore.

The hamlets of Crin, Sâles and Chêne. These three hamlets form, together with the town of Le Châtelard itself, the original village core around which the commune expanded before gradually incorporating the other localities of the hillside and the mountain.

Remains in Le Châtelard

Keep of the Le Châtelard château. The cubic masonry keep topped with brick, dated 1440-1442, constitutes the major medieval remain of the former commune; its architecture is compared to that of the keep of the Saint-Maire château in Lausanne.

Traces of the original fortification. Beneath the present château, according to a tradition still to be cross-checked, very faint remains of a first wooden fortification dated to around the year 1000 are said to survive; no published archaeological excavation confirms this hypothesis with certainty.

Belle Époque villas in Clarens. Several residences built in Clarens in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to accommodate a wealthy hotel clientele survive today, including one of the Dubochet villas, which notably housed Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal in exile.

Sources

Other villages near Le Châtelard

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