Hauterive
Origin of the name Hauterive
The name appears around 1148 in the Latin form « arta ripa ». The village in turn gave its name to a geological layer of the Neocomian, the Hauterivian, from which a yellow limestone, the « Hauterive stone », has been quarried since Antiquity. The form « arta ripa » is sometimes translated as « narrow shore », whereas the present name suggests a « high shore »; an old German name « Altenryf » is also reported (to be cross-checked).
Founding of Hauterive
Hauterive has no founding charter: it is a clustered village built on the hillside at the foot of Chaumont, which owes its location to the nearby quarries of yellow stone. The Champréveyres site on the lakeshore has been occupied since the Magdalenian. In the Middle Ages the upper part of the village, between the village and the edge of the forest, belonged from 1143 to the Premonstratensian abbey of Fontaine-André, as did the Champréveyres area; the abbey had been founded around 1143 by Rudolph I of Neuchâtel and his brother Mangold II, co-lords of Neuchâtel. Other religious institutions owned vineyards in Hauterive: the abbey of Hauterive (from 1158), the convent of La Maigrauge and the chapter of Neuchâtel (from 1180). Until 1848 Hauterive was part of the castellany of Thielle; the village community, mentioned in 1527, ran the village, which has always belonged to the parish of Saint-Blaise.
History of Hauterive
around 13'500 BC. Magdalenian hunters set up a seasonal camp with open-air hearths at Champréveyres (about 400 m²). Remains of horse, hare, marmot, reindeer and ibex lie alongside dog skeletons, evidence of the earliest domestication of the wolf in Europe.
around 10'300 BC. An Azilian layer, with a hearth and a few flint tools, shows a renewed human presence.
3810 BC. Foundation of the oldest Neolithic village at Champréveyres (Cortaillod culture, dendrochronological dating), inhabited for 25 years: a palisade, eight elongated buildings and nearly 1'800 flint tools made on site.
3242-3236 BC. A Horgen culture village, with poorly preserved buildings, is established at Rouges-Terres.
1050-860 BC. A Late Bronze Age village covers 8'700 m²; its 7'500 piles make it possible to reconstruct the rectangular three-aisled houses. Nearly 6'000 bronze objects (axes, knives, pins, rings, fish hooks) and amber beads from the Baltic were found here.
1143. The upper part of the village and the Champréveyres area belong to the Premonstratensian abbey of Fontaine-André, founded around this date by Rudolph I of Neuchâtel and his brother Mangold II.
around 1148. First written mention of the place, in the form « arta ripa ».
14th century. The de Colombier family acquires the fief of the Pressoir (wine press), which passes to the Wattenwyl family in 1516.
1375. The village has 35 hearths. In the same year the abbey of Fontaine-André is burnt during the Gugler invasion (to be cross-checked).
1527. First mention of the village community of Hauterive.
1661. The local school separates from the parish of Saint-Blaise; it is said to have been housed above the communal bread oven and to have also taken in the children of La Coudre (to be cross-checked).
1765-1766. The church of the former abbey of Fontaine-André is demolished (to be cross-checked).
1848. The castellany of Thielle disappears; Hauterive is attached to the district of Neuchâtel.
1858. Ferdinand Keller reports a lakeside settlement at Hauterive; in 1880 the lowering of the lake caused by the first Jura water correction reveals the extent of the occupation.
1870. Construction of the present cantonal road; previously the road ran via Champréveyres.
1894. The opening of the tram line gives decisive impetus to the municipality's development.
1921. Discovery of the grave of a Late La Tène woman buried with a blue glass bracelet.
1983-1986. Excavations at Champréveyres, led among others by Michel Egloff (to be cross-checked).
1993. Pottery from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD is uncovered during excavations in a limestone quarry.
2001. Opening of the Laténium, Neuchâtel's archaeology park and museum, on the Champréveyres excavation site.
26 November 2023. The voters of Hauterive approve, by 76.9 % (to be cross-checked), the merger with Enges, La Tène and Saint-Blaise.
1 January 2025. Hauterive becomes a locality of the new municipality of Laténa, together with Enges, La Tène and Saint-Blaise.
Population of Hauterive
| 1375 | 35 hearths (households) |
| 1750 | 262 |
| 1850 | 345 |
| 1900 | 654 |
| 1950 | 745 |
| 1960 | 1'097 |
| 1970 | 2'213 |
| 2000 | 2'637 |
| 2020 | 2'636 |
| 2022 | 2'692 |
| 2024 | 2'667 |
Historic sites in Hauterive
The Laténium. Neuchâtel's archaeology park and museum, opened in 2001 on the very site of the Champréveyres excavations. It presents Neuchâtel archaeology from prehistory to the Middle Ages, with reconstructed houses, and takes its name from the nearby site of La Tène.
The former abbey of Fontaine-André. Premonstratensian abbey founded around 1143 by Rudolph I of Neuchâtel and his brother Mangold II, owner of the upper part of Hauterive from 1143. Burnt in 1375, deprived of its church in 1765-1766, a private residence from 1825, owned by the Brothers of the Christian Schools from 1954 and sold to a private owner in 2013 (to be cross-checked); it is not open to the public.
The old village and the Domaine de Champréveyres. The village has kept its character, marked by 16th-century stone houses, as well as its large vineyard, which includes the renowned Domaine de Champréveyres.
The quarry trail. A walking route tracing the extraction of Hauterive stone, a yellow limestone quarried locally since Antiquity and widely used in the buildings of the town of Neuchâtel.
The 1920s school. School building by the architect Charles-Henri Matthey, set on the hill and visible from the lake (to be cross-checked).
Remains in Hauterive
The Champréveyres archaeological site. One of the major sites of the Neuchâtel Littoral: Magdalenian camp (around 13'500 BC), Azilian layer (around 10'300 BC), Neolithic villages (Cortaillod from 3810 BC, Horgen between 3242 and 3236 BC) and a Late Bronze Age village (1050-860 BC). The latter yielded nearly 6'000 bronze objects; 648 fish hooks and over 220 preserved plant species are also cited (to be cross-checked). The finds are displayed at the Laténium, built on site.
The dugout canoes of Champréveyres bay. Three dugout canoes were found in the bay: one from the Neolithic (around 4200 BC), the other two from the Late Bronze Age (around 1000 BC).
The remains of the abbey of Fontaine-André. Despite the demolition of the abbey church in the 18th century, the estate keeps buildings reflecting its long monastic history (to be cross-checked).
The old stone quarries. The quarry faces left by the extraction of Hauterive stone still mark the landscape; in 1993 excavations in a limestone quarry yielded pottery from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD.
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Hauterive (NE) » (version française)
- Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, « Hauterive (NE) » (version allemande)
- Wikipédia, « Hauterive (Neuchâtel) »
- Wikipedia, « Hauterive, Neuchâtel » (anglais)
- Wikipédia alémanique, « Hauterive NE »
- Wikipédia, « Abbaye de Fontaine-André »
- Wikipédia, « Rodolphe Ier de Neuchâtel »
- Wikipédia, « Site archéologique de Hauterive-Champréveyres »
- Société d'histoire et d'archéologie du canton de Neuchâtel, « Fondation de l'abbaye de Fontaine-André »
- Wikipedia, « Michel Egloff » (anglais)
- Beaulac.ch, « À la découverte de Hauterive : un joyau aux portes de Neuchâtel »
- Localcities.ch, fiche commune Hauterive (NE)
- État de Neuchâtel, arrêté du 5 février 2025 homologuant le recensement cantonal de la population au 31 décembre 2024
- Commune de Laténa, « Fusion »
- État de Neuchâtel, arrêté du 5 février 2025 homologuant le recensement cantonal de la population au 31 décembre 2024
- Commune de Laténa, « Fusion »
Other villages near Hauterive
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