Roche VD

VD is the abbreviation for the canton of Vaud in Switzerland and is used to avoid confusion with other entries in the name Roche .

Roche
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Vaud (VD)
District :	Aigle
BFS no. :	5413
Postal code :	1852
Coordinates :	560939  /  134 603 coordinates: 46 ° 21 '42 "  N , 6 ° 55' 52"  O ; CH1903:  560939  /  one hundred thirty-four thousand six hundred and three
Height :	390  m above sea level M.
Height range :	374–1499 m above sea level M.
Area :	6.45  km²
Residents:	1776 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	275 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.roche-vd.ch
Roche Church
Location of the municipality

Roche is a municipality in the Aigle district in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland .

geography

Roche lies at 390  m above sea level. M. , 6 km north-northwest of the district capital Aigle (air line). The village extends on the eastern edge of the Rhone Valley , at the exit of the Eau Froide mountain stream from the Vaudois Alps, at the west foot of the heights of the Tour d'Aï .

The area of ​​the 6.5 km² municipal area includes a section of the Rhône valley and the adjacent slopes. In the west, the municipality extends far into the Rhône plain as far as the Grand Canal . To the east, the area extends over the very steep, wooded slopes criss-crossed by rock bands on both sides of the Eau Froide torrent to the Tête de Sauquenil ( 1085  m above sea level ; western section of Mont d'Arvel) and to the height of La Sarse ( at 1502  m above sea level, the highest point in Roche) at Alp Les Agites . In 1997, 16% of the municipal area was in settlements, 31% in forests and woodlands, 51% in agriculture and a little less than 2% was unproductive land.

Roche owns a few individual farms in the Rhône plain. Neighboring municipalities of Roche are Villeneuve , Corbeyrier , Yvorne , Chessel , Noville and Rennaz .

population

With 1776 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018) Roche is one of the smaller municipalities in the canton of Vaud. 93.4% of the residents are French-speaking, 2.0% German-speaking and 1.5% Italian-speaking (as of 2000). The population of Roche was 351 in 1850 and 528 in 1900. In the course of the 20th century, the population increased continuously until 1970 (848 inhabitants). Since then, she has been commuting between 780 and 880 residents.

economy

Roche used to be a predominantly agricultural village. A salt mine had been in operation since the 16th century. During the Bernese period until 1798, Roche was an important salt deposit for the products of the Aigle and Bex salt mines . In the course of the 19th century, limestone mining began on site. The quarries above the village on both sides of the Eau Froide are visible from afar. The cement plant was opened in 1896.

A little quarry a little to the south and also on the slope produced an unusually colorful limestone, which was known in the past as Marbre de Roche , whose applications in the handicrafts of the 18th century by the Funk workshop in Bern and the Marbrerie Doret in Vevey were temporarily of great importance attained. A later special application is the use of the material in the interior construction of the Federal Palace in Bern.

Even today, arable farming and fruit growing have a certain place in the income structure of the population in the Rhône plain. In the area of ​​the place there are some small vineyards . Further jobs are available in local small businesses and in the service sector. With the closure of the cement plant, which has belonged to Holderbank Ciments et Bétons since 1992, numerous jobs were lost in 1999. In the last few decades the village has also developed into a residential community. Many workers are commuters who work mainly in the Vevey-Montreux region.

The Swiss Organ Museum (Musée Suisse de l'Orgue) has been located in Roche since 1983 and is housed in a 16th-century building of a former horse changing station on the road through the Rhône Valley.

traffic

The community has good transport connections. It is located on the main road 9 , which leads from Lausanne via Montreux into the Valais . The next motorway junction to the A9 (Lausanne-Sion), which opened in 1970 and crosses the municipality, is around 3 km from the town center. On June 10, 1857, the Villeneuve-Bex section of the railway line from Lausanne to Valais was opened with a train station in Roche.

history

Traces from Roman times have been discovered in the municipality . At that time the important trade route ran from Aventicum (Avenches) via Octodurum (Martigny) over the Great Saint Bernard to Italy through the Roche area.

The first written mention of the place took place in 1150 under the name Rocha . Later the names Rochi (1177), la Rochy (1402) and Rochiz (1540) appeared. Since the Middle Ages , the village with its church and hospital belonged to the Canons of the Great Saint Bernard (the church and hospital remained in their possession until 1853).

With the conquest of Aigle by Bern in 1476, Roche came under the administration of the Aigle governorate . As director of the Bernese salt pans, the doctor, poet and naturalist Albrecht von Haller stayed in Roche from 1758 to 1764. After the collapse of the Ancien Régime , the village belonged to the canton of Léman from 1798 to 1803 during the Helvetic Republic , which then became part of the canton of Vaud when the mediation constitution came into force . In 1798 it was assigned to the Aigle district. In 1861, numerous houses fell victim to a village fire. After Roche was hit by a major flood of the Eau Froide in 1896, the lower part of the torrent was diked and blocked. In August 2007 the village was flooded again, causing property damage amounting to millions - fortunately no people were harmed.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Roche

In the old town center of Roche there are some characteristic farmhouses and town houses from the 17th to 19th centuries. Roche Castle, a mansion flanked by a square tower, dates from the 18th century and was the residence and place of work of Albrecht von Haller as director of the salt pans in Roche.

Web links

Commons : Roche  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the municipality of Roche (French)
• Elisabeth Salvi: Roche (VD). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Aerial views of the village

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Permanent and non-permanent resident population by year, canton, district, municipality, population type and gender (permanent resident population). In: bfs. admin.ch . Federal Statistical Office (FSO), August 31, 2019, accessed on December 22, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Toni P. Labhart, Manuel Kehrli: Chimneys made of Bernese marble. Bern (Jegenstorf Castle Foundation) 2003 ISBN 3-9522728-0-9
3. ^ Toni P. Labhart: Schweizerische Kunstführer GSK, Volume 719: Steinführer Bundeshaus Bern , Bern 2002, ISBN 3-85782-719-X