Leysin
Origin of the name Leysin
Name origin: the place is recorded as « Leissins » in 1231-1232 and « Leisins » in 1352. The etymology is not explained in the sources consulted.
Founding of Leysin
The sources consulted give neither a founder nor a founding date. In the Middle Ages, Leysin was attached to the vidomnat of Aigle and came under the House of Savoy, which granted the inhabitants the alpine pastures of Aï and Mayen in the 14th century. The village, home to a few hundred people until the late 19th century, lived from alpine livestock farming and the growing of wheat, flax and hemp. Today it comprises the village of Leysin and the hamlets of Veyges, Feydey, Aï and Mayen.
History of Leysin
1231-1232. First mention, « Leissins ».
1313. Leysin has 61 households.
14th century. The House of Savoy grants the inhabitants the alpine pastures of Aï and Mayen.
1439. Pétremand de Chivron pays homage to the Duke of Savoy for twenty-two men of the village.
1445. The bishop of Sion authorises the building of a chapel dedicated to Saint Theodul and Saint Mary Magdalene.
1475-1798. Under Bernese rule, Leysin forms a métralie of the government of Aigle.
1485. The inhabitants are freed from personal servitude.
1520. The inhabitants elect a general council of twelve prud'hommes.
1528. Leysin adopts the Reformation; it becomes a parish in 1702.
1764. The exceptional longevity of the inhabitants is noted, later cited in 1798 by Thomas Robert Malthus in his « Essay on the Principle of Population ».
1798. Opposed to the Revolution, the inhabitants obtain the reoccupation of the village by a Bernese troop, which withdraws on 5 March after the battle of La Forclaz.
1873. Arrival of the first patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.
1875. Opening of the Le Sépey-Leysin road.
1892. Opening of the Grand Hôtel.
1900. Opening of the Aigle-Leysin rack railway, extended to the Grand Hôtel in 1915.
1903. Opening of the first clinic for bone tuberculosis; Dr Auguste Rollier develops the altitude cure and heliotherapy.
1946. The resort hosts an average of 3'500 patients and has up to eighty sanatoriums.
1947. Decline begins because of antibiotic treatments; the clinics close between 1955 and 1962.
1956. Construction of the Berneuse gondola; the shift to summer and winter tourism continues with holiday homes (from 1958) and international private schools.
Population of Leysin
| 1313 | 61 hearths (households) |
| 1850 | 415 |
| 1900 | 1'065 (including resident patients) |
| 1950 | 4'242 (including resident patients) |
| 1980 | 2'057 |
| 2000 | 2'998 |
| 2025 | 3'722 |
Historic sites in Leysin
Reformed church. Former chapel of Sainte-Madeleine-et-Saint-Théodule, whose construction was authorised in 1445 by the bishop of Sion; a mid-15th-century building with a porch tower probably from the late 15th century (to be cross-checked).
Grand Hôtel. Opened in 1892, it marks the beginning of cure tourism; the Aigle-Leysin railway was extended to it in 1915.
Alpine pastures of Aï and Mayen. Granted to the inhabitants by the House of Savoy in the 14th century, at the foot of the Tours d'Aï and de Mayen.
La Berneuse. Summit served by a gondola since 1956, a symbol of Leysin's tourist reconversion.
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Leysin »
- Wikipédia, « Leysin »
- Statistique Vaud, « Population résidante permanente au 31 décembre 2025 »
Other villages near Leysin
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