Les Hauts-Geneveys

Canton of Neuchâtel · Region: Val-de-Ruz · 920 inhabitants (31.12.2012, former municipality of Les Hauts-Geneveys, last census before the merger)

Part of the municipality of Val-de-Ruz

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

Origin of the name Les Hauts-Geneveys

The village is mentioned in 1342 in the form « Geneveis sus Fontannes », meaning « the Geneveys above Fontaines », the parish to which it belonged; a form « Geneveis » is also cited for 1354 (to be cross-checked). In 1599 the form « Haultz Geneveys » appears, close to the present name: the element « Hauts » (upper) distinguishes it from Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane, lower down. The origin of the word « Geneveys » is not established; two hypotheses are put forward, one seeing in it the memory of settlers from Geneva, the other a place where junipers (genévriers) grew (to be cross-checked). The municipal coat of arms, two green juniper branches fruited red crossed in saltire on a blue field, takes up the second hypothesis without proving it.

Founding of Les Hauts-Geneveys

No foundation charter or founder is known. The village appears in 1342 on the lands of the lordship of Valangin, to which it belongs, later the mairie of Valangin; the commune is mentioned from 1402. Its inhabitants, the Geneveysans, enjoyed the status of francs-habergeants. Their dues and services set them against the lord of Valangin, Jean III d'Aarberg, for half a century, until a settlement imposed by Bern in 1478: the community was thus organised enough to defend its rights against its lord. In religious matters the village belonged from the start to the parish of Fontaines.

History of Les Hauts-Geneveys

1342. First known mention of the village, in the form « Geneveis sus Fontannes ».

1402. The commune is mentioned; its inhabitants have the status of francs-habergeants.

1478. Bern settles the half-century conflict between the Geneveysans and the lord of Valangin, Jean III d'Aarberg, over their dues and services.

1531. The village has 27 hearths (households).

1592. The lordship of Valangin, to which the village belongs, is united with the county of Neuchâtel; it had earlier been shared for a time with the county of Montbéliard (to be cross-checked).

1599. The village is mentioned in the form « Haultz Geneveys ».

1707. The principality of Neuchâtel passes under the sovereignty of the kings of Prussia, in personal union.

1750. The village has 146 inhabitants.

1806. The principality of Neuchâtel is ceded by the king of Prussia to Napoleon I, who gives it to Marshal Berthier.

1815. Neuchâtel becomes a Swiss canton while remaining a principality of the king of Prussia.

1850. The village has 379 inhabitants.

1857. The Treaty of Paris ends Prussian sovereignty over Neuchâtel.

1859-1860. The village becomes a station on the Jura-Industriel line between Neuchâtel and La Chaux-de-Fonds.

around 1892. The German-Argentine economist Silvio Gesell settles at Les Hauts-Geneveys, where he buys a farm and devotes himself to farming and the study of economics.

1900. The village has 486 inhabitants. From his farm Silvio Gesell launches the journal Die Geld- und Bodenreform.

1903. Opening of the Val-de-Ruz tramway, an 8.3-kilometre electric metre-gauge line linking Dombresson with Les Hauts-Geneveys, its terminus.

1907-1911. Silvio Gesell stays in Argentina, returns to Les Hauts-Geneveys and then leaves for Germany; after his brief role in the government of the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919, the Swiss authorities refuse to let him resettle on his farm.

1948. The Val-de-Ruz tramway is replaced by a trolleybus.

1950. The village has 455 inhabitants.

1961. The village, attached since its origins to the parish of Fontaines, joins that of Fontainemelon.

1975. Start of a population growth that leads to the building of residential districts.

1986. A regional bus line replaces the trolleybus.

1994-1995. The access road to the Vue-des-Alpes road tunnel, which runs beneath the village, is built in 1994; the tunnel (3'250 metres), whose south portal is at the Les Hauts-Geneveys junction, opens in 1995.

2000. The village has 983 inhabitants.

2005. The company running the former tram line, now a bus line, is merged into the Transports régionaux neuchâtelois (to be cross-checked).

2011. In the vote on merging the Val-de-Ruz municipalities, Les Hauts-Geneveys records the highest approval of the fifteen municipalities, with 74.8% yes (to be cross-checked).

2012. On 31 December, last census of the independent municipality: 920 inhabitants.

2013. On 1 January Les Hauts-Geneveys merges with fourteen other municipalities of the district to form the municipality of Val-de-Ruz.

around 2019. The chapel of Les Hauts-Geneveys ceases to be used for regular worship.

2022. Two organ builders, Guillaume Roulet and Johannes Roehrig, and a glass artist, Dominique Brandt, propose turning the chapel into a workshop and concert or lecture hall, at an estimated cost of 250'000 francs.

Population of Les Hauts-Geneveys

27 hearths (households)

1531

146

1750

379

1850

486

1900

455

1950

983

2000

909 (to be cross-checked)

2011

920

2012

Historic sites in Les Hauts-Geneveys

Les Hauts-Geneveys station. A station on the Jura-Industriel line since 1859-1860, Les Hauts-Geneveys station, at 953.8 metres above sea level, has four tracks and two platforms and serves as a passing point on the Neuchâtel-La Chaux-de-Fonds line; the SBB line splits the village into several districts. Several nearby tunnels, including those of Gibet and Combes-Convers, were refurbished in 2020-2021. The federal STEP 2035 rail programme plans a new direct Neuchâtel-La Chaux-de-Fonds line that could lead to the station's closure to passenger traffic (to be cross-checked).

Tête-de-Ran. This summit of the Neuchâtel Jura, rising to 1'422 metres, at the point called Rochers Bruns, lay within the former municipal territory of Les Hauts-Geneveys. It is made of Kimmeridgian limestone on its eastern side and Sequanian limestone on its western side. Its slopes carry ski runs and lifts: together with the nearby Vue-des-Alpes pass, Tête-de-Ran is a place for tourism and winter sports.

The Vue-des-Alpes pass and tunnel. The Vue-des-Alpes pass, a well-known viewpoint over the Plateau and the Alps, lies close to the village. Since 1995 a 3'250-metre road tunnel has run beneath the pass; its access road, built in 1994, runs under the village, and its south portal is at the Les Hauts-Geneveys junction.

Silvio Gesell's farm. The economist and social reformer Silvio Gesell (1862-1930), known for his theory of free money, buys a farm at Les Hauts-Geneveys around 1892. There he studies economics on his own and in 1900 launches the journal Die Geld- und Bodenreform. After a stay in Argentina (1907-1911) and his part in the government of the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919, the Swiss authorities refuse to let him return to live there.

The former route of the Val-de-Ruz tramway. From 1903 to 1948 an electric metre-gauge tramway linked Les Hauts-Geneveys, its terminus, with Dombresson over 8.3 kilometres, powered by a 650-volt direct-current overhead line. Replaced by a trolleybus in 1948 and then by a regional bus line in 1986, it has vanished from the landscape.

Remains in Les Hauts-Geneveys

The cave in the Vue-des-Alpes tunnel. This large natural cavity was uncovered when the Vue-des-Alpes road tunnel was dug in the 1990s. Invisible from the road, it can only be visited on tours organised from time to time by the Société de développement des Hauts-Geneveys. It is a geological, not an archaeological, feature.

The chapel of Les Hauts-Geneveys. The village has its own chapel, although it belonged to the parish of Fontaines and, from 1961, to that of Fontainemelon. No longer used for regular worship from around 2019, it was the subject in 2022 of a plan to turn it into a workshop and concert or lecture hall. Its construction date is not known from the sources consulted.

Sources

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