Le Locle

Le Locle
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Neuchâtel (NE)
District :	No district division
BFS no. :	6436
Postal code :	2400
UN / LOCODE :	CH ZJA
Coordinates :	547 577  /  212001 coordinates: 47 ° 3 '25 "  N , 6 ° 44' 55"  O ; CH1903:  five hundred and forty-seven thousand five hundred and seventy-seven  /  212001
Height :	920  m above sea level M.
Height range :	852–1318 m above sea level M.
Area :	23.13  km²
Residents:	10,216 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	442 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.lelocle.ch
Catholic Church
Location of the municipality

Le Locle is a municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland . The industrial city is considered the cradle of Swiss watchmaking.

End of June 2009 Le Locle became a UNESCO - World Heritage declared.

geography

Rue de France

Le Locle is 920  m above sea level. M. , 8 km southwest of La Chaux-de-Fonds (air line), near the border with France . The industrial city extends in a narrow high valley in the Neuchâtel Jura , drained by the Bied brook , between the heights of Grand Som Martel in the south and Pouillerel in the north.

The area of ​​the 23.1 km² large municipality covers a section in the Neuchâtel Jura. In the central area of ​​the municipal area is the syncline of Le Locle, a closed high valley that is oriented towards the southwest-northeast in accordance with the direction of the Jura in this area. Several short side valleys flow into this high valley from the south, including the Combe Girard . The valley is drained by the Bied, which is overturned in the area of ​​Le Locle, west to the Doubs . It seeped away in front of the Col des Roches . Since this infiltration funnel was unable to absorb large amounts of water during the snowmelt and long periods of rain, the entire valley floor was often flooded in the past during such events. With the breakthrough of an artificial tunnel under the Col des Roches in 1805, the danger of flooding was largely averted.

To the north, the municipality extends over the height of Les Monts into the Combe de Monterban and onto the broad, partly wooded, partly willow ridge of the Pouillerel (up to 1257  m above sea level ), which forms the high valley of Le Locle from the Doube valley separates. In the east the area extends to the topographical watershed between Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds. In the south and southwest, the anticline of the Grand Som Martel and the height at Prévoux form the demarcation. At 1320  m above sea level M. the highest point of Le Locle is reached north of the summit of the Grand Som Martel. In 1997, 16% of the municipal area was accounted for by settlements, 30% for forests and woodlands and 53% for agriculture; a little less than 1% was unproductive land.

Le Locle includes the districts and former hamlets of La Jaluse ( 949  m above sea level ), Les Jeannerets and Les Petits Monts ( 1020  m above sea level ), the industrial district of Les Billodes in the west of the city, part of the Le Prévoux settlement ( 1077  m above sea level ) at the height southwest of the valley basin as well as various small settlements and numerous, widely scattered individual farms on the heights. Neighboring municipalities of Le Locle are Les Brenets , Les Planchettes , La Chaux-de-Fonds , La Sagne , Les Ponts-de-Martel , La Chaux-du-Milieu and Le Cerneux-Péquignot in the canton of Neuchâtel and Villers-le-Lac in the adjacent France.

population

Population development
year	Residents
1750	3211
1850	8514
1900	12559
1910	12722
1930	12001
1950	11979
1960	13762
1970	14452
1980	12039
1990	11313
2000	10529

With 10,216 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018), Le Locle is the third largest city in the canton of Neuchâtel. 88.0% of the residents speak French, 4.0% speak Italian and 1.9% speak German (as of 2000). The development of the population of Le Locle reflects the economic situation in the high valley of the Jura. A first peak was reached around 1910. A slight decline was recorded in the following two decades, which was followed by a significant upswing in the 1950s and 1960s. The peak was reached in 1967 when Le Locle had almost 15,000 inhabitants. The subsequent economic crisis (particularly in the watch industry) led to a massive wave of emigration, which continues to a lesser extent to this day. Since 1967, the population of Le Locle has decreased by over 30%.

economy

View of Le Locle

Historic aerial photo by Werner Friedli from 1959

Le Locle developed from a farming village to an industrial community in the early 18th century. It is considered the cradle of the Swiss watch industry, which began here in 1705. Lace-making also had an important role in the Neuchâtel Jura at this time. For more than 250 years, Le Locle's economy was mainly geared towards the watch industry , which is why the city was hit particularly hard by the crisis in this sector from 1970 onwards. Since then, the industry has diversified.

Today the city offers around 6,200 jobs. With 2% of the workforce who are still employed in the primary sector, agriculture (predominantly dairy farming and cattle breeding ) only has a marginal role in the employment structure of the population. About 63% of the workforce is employed in the industrial sector, while the service sector accounts for 35% of the workforce (as of 2001).

The watch industry (luxury watches) with its suppliers still has a certain importance in Le Locle. The companies Certina , Mido , Tissot , Ulysse Nardin , Zenith and Zodiak should be mentioned in particular . The city is also the location of numerous companies in the fields of precision mechanics (manufacturing surgical instruments), micromechanics and microelectronics ( Dixi Holding Le Locle ). Information technology, mechanical engineering, the furniture industry, metal construction and plastic and plastic production also play an important role. Until 1992, Le Locle was also known for its chocolate factory.

Healthcare

Le Locle has a public hospital . It belongs to the hospital network Hôpitaux neuchâtelois (French for: Neuchâtel hospitals).

politics

legislative branch

The General Council ( conseil général ) has 41 members. The strongest party is the Labor Party . With 27 out of 41 members, red-green politicians clearly make up the majority of MPs. Le Locle was it explained in an analysis of the "Sonntagszeitung" in March 2012 to that community, at the Swiss Federal Election, 2011 has chosen the linkesten

16

6th

5

14th

16 6th 5 14th 

A total of 41 seats

• PdA : 16
• GPS : 6
• SP : 5
• FDP / glp : 14

The General Council is composed as follows:

Political party	2004	2008	2012	2016
Parti ouvrier et populaire ( Labor Party )	13	18th	17th	16
FDP The Liberals 1	10	13	12	14th
Green	3	5	6th	6th
Social Democratic Party	10	5	5	5
Christian Democratic People's Party	-	-	1	-
Swiss People's Party	5	-	-	-

¹2004 and 2008 joint list of FDP and LPS , 2016 joint list of FDP.Liberals and the glp

There is also a youth parliament in Le Locle .

executive

The city ​​council consists of five members. The mayor of Le Locle is Claude Dubois (FDP). Other city councilors are Denis de la Reussille (PdA), Cédric Dupraz (PdA), Miguel Perez (Greens) and Jean-Paul Wettstein (FDP).

National elections

The voting shares of the parties at the 2019 National Council election were: PdA / Sol 33.3%, FDP 18.2%, Greens 16.4%, SVP 11.8%, SP 11.6%, glp 4.6%, CVP 3 , 9%.

Town twinning

• Sidmouth , Devon , UK
• Gérardmer , France

education

Hôtel des Trois Rois

In addition to the levels of compulsory education (primary schools, secondary schools), Le Locle is the location of two important vocational schools. The Center interrégional de formation des Montagnes neuchâteloises (CIFOM) houses the technical school, which is run together with La Chaux-de-Fonds (main location in Le Locle). The Ecole d'Ingénieurs de l'Arc Jurassien (EIAJ), a cantonal engineering school, specializes in training in the fields of microtechnology, mechanical engineering, electrics and IT. There is also a conservatory and a language school.

traffic

The city has good transport links. It is located on the main road from Neuchâtel via La Chaux-de-Fonds and the Col des Roches to Besançon . With the opening of the railway line from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Le Locle , the city was connected to the railway network on July 2, 1857. The continuation of this line to France to Besançon was completed in 1884. On September 1, 1890, the narrow-gauge railway line from Le Locle to Les Brenets was also put into operation. The city ​​bus lines operated by Transports Régionaux Neuchâtelois (TRN) ensure the fine distribution of public transport . There are also bus routes that run from Le Locle to La Chaux-de-Fonds, via Les Ponts-de-Martel to Neuchâtel and La Brévine .

history

Former town hall

The earliest evidence of human presence in the area of ​​Le Locle comes from the late Mesolithic (around 6000 to 5000 BC). Ceramic fragments and tools as well as bones were found in an abri at Col des Roches. No finds are known from the entire subsequent period up to the Middle Ages .

The place was first mentioned in a document around 1150 under the name Losculo . Later, the names Loclo (1350) and Loucle (1395) appeared. The place name probably goes back to the Latin word occulus (clearing), whereby the article was assimilated .

The area of ​​Le Locle was not properly reclaimed and settled until the 14th century. From 1360 Le Locle belonged to the Valangin estate as a fief . Because the settlers were granted a relatively large amount of freedom, mainly people from the Val de Ruz and the Val de Travers settled here. The Reformation was introduced in the community in 1536. Together with the rule of Valangin, Le Locle came under the sovereignty of the county of Neuchâtel in 1592. From 1648 Neuchâtel was a principality and from 1707 it was linked to the Kingdom of Prussia through a personal union. In 1806 the area was ceded to Napoleon I and came to the Swiss Confederation in the course of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 , whereby the kings of Prussia until the Neuchâtel trade in 1857 also remained princes of Neuchâtel.

Compared to La Chaux-de-Fonds and other settlements in the area, Le Locle benefited from the hydropower of the Bied river and therefore rarely suffered from water shortages. The first mills, saws and forges were built along the stream. In the 17th century, lace-making emerged from home and led to the area's first economic boom.

Le Locle (1907)

In 1705 Daniel Jeanrichard (1664–1741) moved from La Sagne to Le Locle, began producing watches and thus founded this traditional Swiss industry. At first, watchmaking was mainly done at home. The homeworkers (mainly from the peasant class) delivered the various components to a studio, in which they were assembled. With the new technical possibilities, Le Locle quickly developed into an industrial community at the end of the 18th century. Numerous factories were built. In contrast to La Chaux-de-Fonds, however, Le Locle had only limited possibilities for expansion, as it was located in a narrow basin with steep slopes and a muddy valley floor. After 1800, it therefore lagged behind La Chaux-de-Fonds in terms of its economic and population development.

Le Locle was hit by major fires in 1683, 1765 and 1833. Following the example of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle was rebuilt in a chessboard layout after the fire of 1833. The 19th century and the 20th century until 1970 were characterized by the flourishing watch industry. In addition to an important chocolate factory founded in 1856 and some machine industry, Le Locle's industry was very one-sidedly oriented towards the watch and accessories industry. Therefore, the city suffered badly from the economic crisis of the 1970s. Numerous watchmaking companies had to close, which led to high unemployment and ultimately a high level of emigration. Only then did the diversification into today's industries take place.

Cityscape and landmarks

reformed Church

See also : List of cultural assets in Le Locle

Cityscape

The cityscape of Le Locle is characterized by the checkerboard floor plan designed by Charles-Henri Junod with numerous modern industrial, commercial and commercial buildings, apartment blocks and the typical cubic tenement houses from the 19th century. The Reformed Church is the successor to the Sainte-Marie-Madeleine chapel mentioned in 1321. This church was enlarged from 1521 to 1525 and provided with the front tower that still exists today. The current nave was rebuilt in the middle of the 18th century. Also worth mentioning are the former town hall (Hôtel de Ville), which was built between 1839 and 1841 and now serves as a courthouse, the Du Bois house (from the second half of the 17th century), a villa built by Le Corbusier in 1912 on the Côte des Billodes and today's Hôtel de Ville from 1914 to 1918 in the neo-renaissance style . The oldest preserved building in the region is the former Bourdonnière farmhouse, which was built in 1587. At the end of June 2009, Le Locle - together with La Chaux-de-Fonds  - was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Museums

There are three museums in Le Locle:

• Musée des Beaux-Arts (founded in 1880) with pictures by Neuchâtel and Swiss painters from the 19th and 20th centuries, sculptures, a collection of graphics, a collection of Eskimo art and changing exhibitions
• Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle (clock museum) with automats and clocks from the 16th to 19th centuries as well as Neuchâtel pendulums. The museum is located in the Château des Monts mansion, which was built from 1785 to 1790.
• Musée des moulins souterrains du Col des Roches (partially rebuilt water wheels, the cave mills of Le Locle on the Col des Roches)

Personalities

• Marie-Anne Calame - Philanthropist
• Bernard Challandes - football coach
• Pierre Favre - jazz drummer
• Abraham Girardet - engraver and engraver
• Charles Girardet - draftsman, lithographer and engraver
• Karl Girardet - painter
• André Jeanquartier - jazz pianist
• Fritz Ulysse Landry - sculptor, medalist, coin designer and painter
• Lucien Lesna - cyclist
• Lucrezia Meier-Schatz - politician
• Dominique Othenin-Girard - film director
• Joel Pereira - football goalkeeper
• Henri Louis Pernod - founder of an absinthe distillery
• Henri Rheinwald - racing cyclist
• Ludwig Rinderer - Austrian politician
• René Stulz - economist
• Oscar Tschirky - Maître d'hôtel at the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria
• Pierre Siegenthaler - actor
• Napoleon Washington - blues musician

Web links

Commons : Le Locle  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the municipality of Le Locle
• Jean-Marc Barrelet: Locle, Le. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Aerial photos of Le Locle and its surroundings

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} La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle becomes Unesco World Heritage: exceptional symbiosis between watch industry and urban development honored , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, accessed on June 27, 2009
3. ↑ http://www.20min.ch/schweiz/news/story/Hier-ticken-die-Waehler-besonders-radikal-16447286
4. ↑ http://www.lelocle.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/basesite/documents/Autorites/2016/CG_Elus_et_viennent-ensuite.pdf
5. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ http://www.lelocle.ch/autorites/conseil-communal/
7. ^ Federal Statistical Office : NR - Results parties (municipalities) (INT1). In: Federal Elections 2019 | opendata.swiss. August 8, 2019, accessed August 20, 2020 . 
8. ^ Watch Wiki: Daniel JeanRichard
9. ↑ Ephrem Jobin, Gabriel-W. Jacot: Château des Monts watch museum - Le Locle. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 368). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1985, ISBN 978-3-85782-368-8 .
10. ^ Catherine Cardinal, François Mercier: Musées d'horlogerie: La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle. Zurich 1993.