Les Marécottes
Origin of the name Les Marécottes
A hamlet of Salvan, Les Marécottes bears a name whose meaning and earliest written form are unknown.
Founding of Les Marécottes
Les Marécottes is a hamlet in the municipality of Salvan, in the Trient valley, at about 1'100 m. When and by whom it was founded is unknown. In the 20th century the hamlet turned to tourism, with a ski area, a zoo of alpine wildlife and a natural swimming pool.[1][7]
History of Les Marécottes
1895. During the summer Guglielmo Marconi sets up his transmitter on the Pierre Bergère, above Salvan. Young Maurice Gay-Balmaz holds the receiver, moved step by step up to about 1.5 km away, to a property at the top of Les Marécottes. His account was only recorded some seventy years later.[2]
1926. Engineer A. Sarrasin designs the Les Marécottes balancing reservoir, closed on the south side by a thin reinforced concrete multiple arch dam. It holds the water coming from the Châtelard power station before it is used at the Vernayaz power station.[4]
1953. A first single chairlift links the village to the hamlet of La Creusaz. Skiing begins at Les Marécottes.[5]
1961. The Luisin ski tow opens.[5]
1968. A gondola lift replaces the chairlift between Les Marécottes and La Creusaz.[5]
2012. At Le Vélard a detachable four-seat chairlift succeeds the 1984 one, while a new Luisin ski tow replaces the old one.[5]
2020. The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) refurbish the balancing reservoir to extend its life by 80 years.[4]
2025. On 8 March a new gondola to La Creusaz is inaugurated, with 17 eight-person cabins, at a cost of 13 million francs. The old one was described as the oldest still operating in Switzerland.[6]
Historic sites in Les Marécottes
Alpine zoo. A 35'000 m² park under larch trees at about 1'100 m. It shows some 150 animals of the alpine fauna, including bears, lynx, foxes, deer and marmots, and calls itself the highest zoo in Europe.[7][8]
Natural swimming pool. A 70 m pool cut into the rock next to the zoo. Heated by a solar installation, it is open from June to September.[9]
SBB balancing reservoir. A 1926 hydroelectric structure closed by a multiple arch dam, listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property.[3][4]
La Creusaz gondola. It climbs from the hamlet to La Creusaz, at the heart of the ski area opened in 1953.[5][6]
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Salvan (commune) » (Gaëlle Bourguinet Eggs, version du 07.06.2013)
- Vallée du Trient, « Marconi ouvre la voie de la transmission sans fil »
- Inventaire suisse des biens culturels (PBC), objet 6980, « Les Marécottes, bassin d'accumulation CFF »
- Sika Schweiz, « Assainissement du bassin de compensation des Marécottes »
- remontees-mecaniques.net, « Les Marécottes » (historique des installations)
- Loisirs.ch, « Les Marécottes inaugurent leur nouvelle télécabine »
- Commune de Salvan, « Zoo et piscine des Marécottes »
- Zoo alpin des Marécottes, « Le zoo »
- Loisirs.ch, « Zoo et piscine des Marécottes »
- Office fédéral de la statistique (OFS), STATPOP, chiffres provisoires au 31.12.2025, via citypopulation.de
- geo.admin.ch, recherche de lieux (coordonnées)
Other villages near Les Marécottes
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