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Villages / Jura / Porrentruy district / Haute-Ajoie

Haute-Ajoie

Merger 2009 Canton of Jura · District: Porrentruy · 1'064 inhabitants (31.12.2024)
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Population over time Must-see historical sites Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Haute-Ajoie

Haute-Ajoie is the name the commune has borne since the 2009 merger. No record of how it was chosen has survived.

Founding of Haute-Ajoie

The project covered six communes. In spring 2008 Chevenez, Damvant, Réclère and Roche-d'Or accept it, while Grandfontaine and Rocourt reject it. The merger committee carries on with the four communes in favour, and the commune of Haute-Ajoie is born on 1 January 2009. Rocourt joins it in 2018. The five villages share a karst landscape of dry valleys, sinkholes and caves, beneath which the Ajoulote flows. In the first centuries the area lay on the edge of the Roman Empire, near the roads linking Augst with Besançon and Avenches with Mandeure. Chevenez, Damvant, Réclère and Roche-d'Or depended on the prince-bishops of Basel from the 13th century. Rocourt long had its own lords, who refused to pay homage to the bishops, before it too joined the grande mairie of Chevenez.[1][2][3]

History of Haute-Ajoie

1283. Prince-Bishop Henry of Isny has Roche-d'Or castle built.[6]

1383. Pierre de Cly receives Roche-d'Or in fief, together with Chevenez, Grandfontaine, Réclère, Damvant and Fahy.[6]

Late 15th century. Damvant, Réclère, Roche-d'Or and Chevenez are grouped in the grande mairie of Chevenez, within the seigneury of Ajoie.[2]

1595. On 3 August Roche-d'Or castle is dismantled.[6]

1610. Marguerite Jubin of Rocourt is burned for witchcraft.[2]

1740. On 27 October Jean-Pierre Riat of Chevenez is sentenced to beheading for sedition, following the revolt led by Pierre Péquignat.[2]

1793. On 23 March Damvant, Réclère, Rocourt and Roche-d'Or become part of the canton of Chevenez, in the Porrentruy district of the Mont-Terrible department.[6]

1890. The Réclère caves, discovered in 1886, open to the public.[7]

1944. On 15 November the Swiss captain Jules Schaffner is shot dead at Damvant by members of the Forces françaises de l'intérieur, who take him for a German officer.[2]

2008. Between 28 February and 6 March Chevenez, Damvant, Réclère and Roche-d'Or approve the merger. Grandfontaine (3 March) and Rocourt (6 March) reject it.[1]

2008. On 3 September the Jura Parliament ratifies the merger of Chevenez, Damvant, Réclère and Roche-d'Or.[1]

2009. The commune of Haute-Ajoie comes into being on 1 January.[2][3]

2015. On 18 March the communal assembly decides to close the school in Réclère.[1]

2015. On 17 June Haute-Ajoie decides not to open merger talks with Fahy and Grandfontaine for the time being.[1]

2016. On 21 January the communal assembly rejects a wind farm project.[1]

2018. Rocourt joins the commune.[2]

Population of Haute-Ajoie

Sources and references: [5]

Population of Haute-Ajoie
20241'064

Historic sites in Haute-Ajoie

Réclère caves. Caves and caverns in karst country, with the underground river Ajoulote.[2]

Roche-d'Or castle ruins. Of the prince-bishops' castle, rebuilt in 1285 and 1437 and occupied by Burgundian troops on 5 May 1475, ruins remain that are listed in the inventory of cultural property.[6][8]

Notre-Dame chapel, Roche-d'Or. Approved by the communal assembly in 1922, it was inaugurated on 22 April 1924. Restored in 1981-1982 and again at the initiative of an association founded in 2004, it was consecrated anew on 23 June 2006.[6]

Archaeological sites. At Chevenez, the Au Breuille site, used from the Mesolithic to the Roman period, is listed as cultural property of national importance. Damvant has a Gallo-Roman villa of regional importance.[8]

Communal administration. It is in Chevenez, L'Abbaye 114.[2]

Sources

  1. Chronologie jurassienne, « Haute-Ajoie, commune »
  2. Commune de Haute-Ajoie, « Portrait de la Haute-Ajoie »
  3. République et Canton du Jura, « Message du Gouvernement au Parlement relatif à la révision de la législation en matière de fusion de communes » (30 mars 2011)
  4. République et Canton du Jura, réponse du Gouvernement à la question écrite n° 3074 « Fusions de communes : où en est-on ? » (23 octobre 2018)
  5. Statistique Jura, « Mémento statistique Jura 2025 » (population résidante permanente au 31 décembre 2024)
  6. Chronologie jurassienne, « Roche-d'Or »
  7. Showcaves.com, « Grottes de Réclère »
  8. Office fédéral de la protection de la population (OFPP), Inventaire PBC, liste cantonale du canton du Jura (état au 1.1.2026)

Localities of the municipality with a page

Other villages near Haute-Ajoie

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