Fleurier
Origin of the name Fleurier
First written mention in 1284, in the form « Flurye ». The village bears the same name as the Fleurier, one of the three streams that meet there. The sources consulted do not explain the origin of the name (to be cross-checked).
Founding of Fleurier
No founder or founding charter is known. Fleurier is a medieval farming village at the confluence of the Areuse, the Buttes and the Fleurier and at the junction of three roads (towards Buttes and Sainte-Croix, towards Les Bayards, Les Verrières and Pontarlier, towards Couvet, Travers and Neuchâtel). In 1340 it had 54 hearths. It belonged to the parish of Vautravers, centred on Môtiers, and from the 14th century to 1848 to the castellany of Vautravers, and was part of the corporation of the Six Communes. The commune took shape in the 16th century. Modest until the mid-18th century, Fleurier was then transformed by bobbin lace and above all by watchmaking, introduced around 1730: until the early 20th century its population doubled every fifty years. It is now part of the municipality of Val-de-Travers (merger of 1 January 2009).
History of Fleurier
1284. First written mention of the village, in the form « Flurye ».
1340. Fleurier has 54 hearths, that is about 270 inhabitants.
14th century-1848. The village belongs to the castellany of Vautravers and to the corporation of the Six Communes, which defends common economic interests; in church matters it belongs to the parish of Vautravers.
1517. The commune receives in perpetual lease the manorial mill of the pont de la Roche.
1584. Foundation of the noble shooting corporation of the Abbaye.
1621. Construction of a small communal building for worship, the school and the public oven; a chapel follows in 1675, rebuilt in 1703.
1682-1692. A small iron mine is worked.
late 17th century. Bobbin lace is recorded; there are some 300 lacemakers in 1794.
1710. Fleurier becomes an independent parish, separated from that of Vautravers.
around 1730. David-Jean-Jacques-Henri Vaucher introduces watchmaking, which becomes the village's main activity.
1792-1831. A joint-stock Grain Society secures the supply of bread cereals and has a granary built (1795).
1813-1814. Allied troops pass through.
1822-1910. Fleurier is one of the main production centres of the so-called Chinese watch, exported to the Far East by the Bovet, Vaucher, Dimier and Juvet families.
1827. Construction of the present church (new spire in 1900). A leather glove factory operates from 1827 to 1839 to counter the crisis caused by the mechanisation of lacemaking.
1851. Opening of a school of watchmaking and mechanics, which runs until 1985.
1858. Construction of the Catholic church (rebuilt in 1972), centre of the Catholic parish of the Val-de-Travers re-established in 1865.
1860-1883. Boveresse station, on the Franco-Suisse line, also serves Fleurier.
1866. The Société du musée de Fleurier creates one of the first swimming pools in Switzerland (until 1959).
1871. Interned soldiers of the Bourbaki army stay in Fleurier in February. The same year work begins to open up the Poëta-Raisse gorge.
1883. Fleurier becomes a station of the Régional du Val-de-Travers railway and its administrative and technical headquarters; the branch to Buttes follows in 1886.
1914. The Allegro bicycle brand is born in Fleurier.
1920. Charles-Edouard Guillaume, a native of Fleurier, receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for his alloys that eliminate the expansion anomalies of balance wheels.
1967-1980. Land consolidation; the sewage treatment plant opens in 1974.
2009. On 1 January Fleurier merges with Les Bayards, Boveresse, Buttes, Couvet, Môtiers, Noiraigue, Saint-Sulpice and Travers to form the municipality of Val-de-Travers.
Population of Fleurier
| 1340 | 54 hearths (households), about 270 inhabitants |
| 1750 | 460 |
| 1800 | 840 |
| 1850 | 1'770 |
| 1900 | 3'746 |
| 1950 | 3'413 |
| 1970 | 4'124 |
| 2000 | 3'761 |
| 2008 | 3'497 (31 December, last census before the merger) |
Historic sites in Fleurier
Fleurier church. Protestant church built in 1827, given a new spire in 1900. It succeeded the chapel of 1675 (rebuilt in 1703), Fleurier having become an independent parish in 1710.
Catholic church. Built in 1858 and rebuilt in 1972, it is the centre of the Catholic parish of the Val-de-Travers, re-established in 1865.
Poëta-Raisse gorge. Gorge opened up from 1871 by the Société du musée de Fleurier, which acted until 1971 as the local tourist office.
Val-de-Travers school centre. Fleurier hosts the secondary school (communal from 1862, regional from 1958), the former teacher training college (1895-1949), the grammar school opened in 1949 (lycée since 1999) and the former school of watchmaking and mechanics (1851-1985).
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Fleurier »
- État de Neuchâtel, arrêté du 21 janvier 2009 portant homologation des résultats du recensement cantonal de la population du 31 décembre 2008
Other villages near Fleurier
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