Romairon

Canton of Vaud · District: Jura-Nord vaudois · About 32 to 37 inhabitants at the time of the 2011 merger (compared with 95 inhabitants at the 1900 peak). The new municipality of Tévenon had about 700 inhabitants in 2011 and close to 900 inhabitants at the end of 2019.

Part of the municipality of Tévenon

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

Origin of the name Romairon

The village's name is first attested in 1403 in the form « Romeyron ». A local tradition, reported by the municipality itself, proposes deriving the name from the Latin word « Romanorum », in connection with the discovery, reported in the 19th century, of a few Roman coins in the village. This hypothesis, however, belongs to local oral tradition and rests, among the sources consulted, only on a municipal document; it would deserve to be checked against a scientific toponymic study, which none of the sources examined provides. In any case, from 1927 the municipality adopted another symbol (a cockchafer) as its official emblem, which contributed to pushing the hypothesis of a Roman origin for the name into the background.

Founding of Romairon

No source consulted attributes to Romairon a founding act or an identifiable founder: it is a rural hamlet that emerged gradually during the Middle Ages within the seigneury known as the « Terre de Montagny ». After the Bernese conquest of 1476, the village was incorporated into the common bailiwick of Grandson (jointly administered by Berne and Fribourg from 1484), within the métralie of Bonvillars. Between 1788 and 1825, Romairon was part of a larger administrative unit, the « Générale et haute commune de Champagne », before becoming a distinct municipality. Its economy and village organization thus took shape gradually, on an agropastoral basis (livestock raising, dairy production, cereals, potatoes, summer alpine pasturing), without any episode of planned creation by a particular lord or authority.

History of Romairon

Roman era (imprecise period). Early human presence suggested by the discovery, mentioned by only one local source consulted and not corroborated by the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, of a few Roman coins in the village during the 19th century.

1403. First attested written mention of the place, in the form « Romeyron ».

Middle Ages - 1476. The village is part of the seigneury of the Terre de Montagny, under the feudal Ancien Régime.

1476. Following the Burgundian Wars, the region of Grandson comes under Bernese rule, then (from 1484) under the common bailiwick of Berne and Fribourg; Romairon is attached to the métralie of Bonvillars, within this bailiwick.

1788-1825. Romairon is part of the « Générale et haute commune de Champagne », before becoming a distinct municipality.

1798. End of the Bernese Ancien Régime (Vaud Revolution); temporary attachment to the canton of Léman. Registered population: 68 inhabitants.

1803. After the Act of Mediation, the region joins the new canton of Vaud.

1798-2006. Romairon belongs to the district of Grandson (dissolved in 2006, then merged into the district of Jura-Nord vaudois).

1838. Founding of the « Société de fromagerie des Hauts-de-Champagne » by the milk producers of Vaugondry, Fontanezier and Romairon; the building of Romairon's communal dairy (with cheese cellars) would later become the municipal house.

1850. Registered population: 77 inhabitants.

1897. The parish to which Romairon belongs, until then attached to Saint-Maurice (municipality of Champagne), passes into the suffragan status of Villars-Burquin.

1900. Registered population: 95 inhabitants, which constitutes the village's known demographic peak.

1909. A fire destroys one of the village's houses, reducing their number from seventeen to sixteen.

1917. The parish of Villars-Burquin, on which Romairon depends religiously, becomes an autonomous parish.

1927. The municipality adopts a coat of arms depicting a cockchafer (« or, a bend vert charged with a cockchafer proper, placed bendwise », according to the available heraldic description).

circa 1950. Demolition of a village house threatening to collapse, reducing the number of houses to fifteen; according to local tradition, this is said to have been the house rumoured to be of Roman origin.

1950. Registered population: 43 inhabitants.

1975. Decommissioning of the collège (school building) built in the early 20th century straddling the border between Vaugondry and Romairon; the two dwellings that succeed it will allow their tenants to choose their municipality of residence until the merger.

1980. Registered population: 36 inhabitants.

2000. Registered population: 37 inhabitants; 86% of inhabitants were born in the canton of Vaud or in the municipality itself.

2005. Start of intermunicipal rapprochement efforts between Fontanezier, Romairon, Vaugondry and Villars-Burquin, four villages historically grouped under the name « Pied-de-la-Côte ».

27 September 2009. Voters of the four municipalities approve the merger agreement in a ballot.

2010. Registered population: 32 inhabitants (according to one of the sources consulted, this figure differs slightly from the figure of about 37 inhabitants given for the 2000-2009 period by another source; this discrepancy would deserve to be cross-checked).

1 July 2011. Official merger of Romairon with Fontanezier, Vaugondry and Villars-Burquin, giving rise to the new municipality of Tévenon. The number of Vaud municipalities drops from 366 to 365.

Population of Romairon

1798

1850

1900

1950

1980

2000

2010

Historic sites in Romairon

The Vaugondry-Romairon school. School building erected in the early 20th century and set, unusually, exactly on the municipal boundary between Vaugondry and Romairon. Decommissioned as a school since 1975, it was later converted into two dwellings whose tenants could, before the 2011 merger, choose their municipality of residence.

The former communal dairy (present municipal house). The building that today houses Romairon's municipal house long served as a dairy, with its cheese cellars. It was the seat of the « Société de fromagerie des Hauts-de-Champagne », founded in 1838 by the milk producers of Vaugondry, Fontanezier and Romairon, evidence of the village's cooperative agricultural organization.

The village's craft and trade core. According to the municipality of Tévenon, Romairon long formed « a genuine commercial and craft hub », with a dairy, a communal bread oven, a communal press, a forge, a grocery shop and a café, all now gone but bearing witness to the self-sufficient village life of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Rondenoire alpine pasture and the Combaz summer pasture. Located on Romairon's former municipal territory, in the mountain zone between the Chasseron and the Mont Aubert, these alpine pastures are mentioned by the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland as features of the local landscape; the Combaz summer pasture has belonged to the municipality of Bonvillars since 1795. They recall the practice, among Romairon's farming families, of taking livestock to summer pasture for one to two months a year on the steepest grazing land of the territory.

Remains in Romairon

Roman coins and the « Roman house » (to be verified). A local municipal source mentions the discovery, in the 19th century, of a few Roman coins in the village, as well as a tradition according to which a village house (demolished around 1950 as it threatened to collapse) was said to be of Roman origin. Among the sources consulted, this information rests only on this municipal document and is not confirmed by the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland or by any identified archaeological report; it is therefore reported here with caution, as a local tradition to be verified rather than as an established archaeological fact.

Sources

Other villages near Romairon

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