Eclépens

Eclépens
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Vaud (VD)
District :	Morges
BFS no. :	5482
Postal code :	1312
UN / LOCODE :	CH ECL
Coordinates :	530 106  /  167216 coordinates: 46 ° 39 '9 "  N , 6 ° 31' 32"  O ; CH1903:  530106  /  167216
Height :	461  m above sea level M.
Height range :	442–602 m above sea level M.
Area :	5.80  km²
Residents:	1213 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	209 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.eclepens.ch
Eclépens village center
Location of the municipality

Eclépens is a municipality in the Morges district in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland .

geography

Eclépens lies at 461  m above sea level. M. , 16 km north of the district capital Morges (linear distance). The village extends in the valley of the Venoge , at the southern foot of the Mormont , in the Waadtländer Mittelland .

The area of ​​the 5.8 km² municipal area covers a section of the Vaud Central Plateau. The central part of the area is taken up by the up to 1 km wide flat valley low on the middle reaches of the Venoge. To the south, Eclépens extends as far as Bramafan (up to 520  m above sea level ). The northern border runs on the Mormont , a crossbar between the Venogetal and the Orbe plain . It forms the watershed between the catchment areas of the Rhone and Rhine . On the Haut du Mormont is 605  m above sea level. M. reached the highest point of Eclépens. To the east the area extends to the wooded slope of the Côte de Tilerie , and in the far northeast to the Cristallin brook , which already belongs to the catchment area of ​​the Orbe. In 1997, 17% of the municipal area was in settlements, 27% in forests and woodlands, 55% in agriculture and a little more than 1% was unproductive land.

Eclépens includes a few individual farms and the industrial area of ​​the cement works near the train station. Neighboring municipalities to Eclépens are Orny , La Sarraz , Lussery-Villars , Daillens , Oulens-sous-Echallens and Bavois .

history

In 1973, three prehistoric settlements were discovered during construction work, which were dated from the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age . In January 2006 an important place of worship of the Helvetii was found on Mormont .

The municipal area was also crossed by the Roman road that connected Orbe with Lausanne.

The place was first mentioned in a document as early as 814 under the name Sclepedingus . Later, the names Isclapadenes (1011), Sclepens (1147), Esclepens (1174), Esclepeins (1228), Esclepans (1286) and Sclapeins (1325) appeared. The place name is of Burgundian origin. Both the cathedral chapter in Lausanne and the Romainmôtier monastery were wealthy in Eclépens in the Middle Ages . The village rulership was owned by a local noble family as a fief from the lords of La Sarraz. In the 14th century, after the noble family died out, Eclépens came back to the rule of La Sarraz.

With the conquest of Vaud by Bern in 1536, the village came under the administration of the Bailiwick of Romainmôtier. After the collapse of the Ancien Régime , Eclépens 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 Cossonay district.

population

With 1213 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018) Eclépens is one of the smaller municipalities in the canton of Vaud. 89.6% of the residents are French-speaking, 3.0% German-speaking and 2.2% Italian-speaking (as of 2000). The population of Eclépens was 495 in 1850 and 477 in 1900. Since 1960 (440 inhabitants) a rapid population increase with a doubling of the population within 40 years has been observed.

economy

Until the second half of the 19th century, Eclépens was predominantly an agricultural village. Today arable farming and fruit growing only play a subordinate role in the income structure of the population. There is a small wine-growing region on the southern slopes of the Mormont .

In the course of the 19th century, Eclépens developed into an industrial location after the construction of the railway thanks to the good transport connections. A canal was used to divert water from the Venoge and lead it to the industrial area. A mill, a hammer mill and a spinning mill were built here, which were later converted into the H. Berger SA cloth factory and operated until 1983. There was also a brick factory until the middle of the 20th century. In 1953 the cement works was founded east of the village, which maintains a large quarry on the Mormont and was taken over in 1992 by Holderbank Cement und Beton AG (today Holcim ). At Eclépens there is also a collection point for special waste. In the last few decades the village has also developed into a residential community.

Swiss Post has set up one of its three large mail distribution centers in Eclépens, which has been in operation since 2008.

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  Holcim cement factory

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  Eclépens letter center

traffic

The community has good transport connections.

It is located on a main road from La Sarraz to Oulens-sous-Echallens . The La Sarraz motorway junction on the A1 (Lausanne-Yverdon) opened in 1981 is around 4 km from the town.

On May 7, 1855, the Yverdon - Bussigny-près-Lausanne section of the Yverdon -Lausanne railway line went into operation. The Eclépens station is, however, 2 km east of the village at the south portal of the Mormont tunnel. The La Sarraz station on the Cossonay - Vallorbe line, inaugurated on July 1, 1870, is located just outside the village .

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Eclépens

The Upper Castle (Château En-Haut)

The parish church of Saint-Pierre, originally from the 13th century, was renovated from 1673 to 1675. Eclépens has two castles: the lower castle (Château En-Bas) was built in 1709, while the upper castle (Château En-Haut) was built in 1786 through the renovation and expansion of the former rectory. In the compact town center, some characteristic farmhouses from the 17th to 19th centuries have been preserved.

Web links

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

• Official website of the municipality of Eclépens (French)
• Jean-Jacques Bouquet: Eclépens. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Aerial photography
• Château d'Eclépens (French)

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 .