Dorénaz

Dorénaz
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Valais (VS)
District :	Saint-Maurice
BFS no. :	6212
Postal code :	1905
Coordinates :	569542  /  110931 coordinates: 46 ° 8 '57 "  N , 7 ° 2' 40"  O ; CH1903:  569542  /  110931
Height :	451  m above sea level M.
Height range :	446–2469 m above sea level M.
Area :	12.58  km²
Residents:	969 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	77 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.dorenaz.ch
Location of the municipality

Grand Chavalard

Dorénaz is a political municipality and a civil parish in the district of Saint-Maurice in the French-speaking part of the canton of Valais in Switzerland . Coal and slate were mined in Dorénaz until the 1950s .

geography

Dorénaz is located on the east bank of the Rhone, which flows northwards here, north of Martigny and south-southeast of Saint-Maurice. In addition to the village of Dorénaz, the municipality includes the hamlets of Alesse and Champex. The latter can be reached from Dorénaz by cable car. The neighboring communities of Dorénaz are Collonges in the north, Fully in the east, Martigny in the south, Vernayaz in the west and Evionnaz in the north-northwest .

population

Population development
year	1850	1900	1920	1950	1980	2000	2010	2012	2014	2016
Residents	305	467	648	474	451	607	734	796	858	911

Mining

Dorénaz was known for high-quality slate and was the most important coal deposit in Valais at the end of the First World War . The anthracite had a high calorific value but also a high ash content. It was not suitable for the production of town gas or coke , but the risk of firedamp explosions in the mine was lower.

Dorénaz's coal was mined during three periods:

• In 1852 Hans-Josef Jordan from Cologne was granted the concession to mine the anthracite. At La Méreune, it drives two stretches into the mountain about 1200 m above the valley floor to mine the 1.2 to 1.8 m thick seam . From 1874 onwards, under the economically very active mayor Pierre-Maurice Paccolat, production increased significantly. The transport of the coal, packed in sacks, was laborious: it had to be brought from the tunnel on toboggans to the hamlet of Alesse , where it was loaded onto a cable car to Dorénaz, from where it in turn had to be brought to Vernayaz station. The mining took place until 1898. The largest production was in the years 1876 to 1887, where a total of 2588 t coal was mined.
• Towards the end of the First World War, coal became scarce in Switzerland. This led to Dorénaz SA, Charbonnages du Valais à Vernayaz , mining coal again from 1917 . The main shareholders were Léon Bochatey, the former director of the Moderna wooden packaging factory in Vernayaz, and the Ateliers Piccard-Pictet & Cie. from Geneva. At La Méreune , two more tunnels were built and workers' accommodation for 750 men was built at the mouth of the tunnel. The coal was brought by cable car across the valley floor directly to the briquette factory at Vernayaz train station. The main buyer of the briquettes was the SBB . From 1918 to 1920, 70,000 tons of coal were mined. With the end of the war economy, coal mining ceased in 1921. The Dorénaz SA became insolvent 1922-1924. The mine, cable car and briquette factory passed into the ownership of the Swiss Bank Corporation . The buildings of the briquette factory and the workers' settlement are still preserved.
• During the Second World War , coal mining began again. The entrepreneur Oscar Machoud from Sion founded the Mines d'anthracite de Dorénaz . In November 1941 the coal mine resumed operations. In the same year, management passed to Joseph Dionisotti from Monthey , who already owned several mining concessions in the Valais. During the Second World War, Dorénaz was the fourth largest coal mine in Valais after Chandoline , Grône I and II, which supplied about 8% of the coal mined in Valais. From 1947 to 1953 the coal was used exclusively for the operation of the Dionisotti lime kiln in Monthey. From 1941 to 1953, a total of 88,000 tons of coal were mined.

Attractions

In Dorénaz there has been a fairy tale museum since 2000, the so-called House of Fairy Tales and Legends ( Maison des contes et légends ).

literature

• Bernard Monnet: Dorénaz. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 2004 .

Web links

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

• Dorénaz on the ETHorama platform
• Official website of the municipality of Dorénaz
• Website of the Maison des contes et legends

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. ^ ^{A b} Pascal Tissières: L'activité minière sur le territoire de la Commune de Dorénaz. 2003 (French).