Lucens

Lucens
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Vaud (VD)
District :	Broye-Vully
BFS no. :	5675
Postal code :	1522 1526 Cremin 1526 Forel-sur-Lucens 1683 Brenles 1683 Chesalles-sur-Moudon 1683 Sarzens
Coordinates :	554137  /  173159 coordinates: 46 ° 42 '29 "  N , 6 ° 50' 20"  O ; CH1903:  554137  /  173159
Height :	498  m above sea level M.
Height range :	475–847 m above sea level M.
Area :	19.28  km²
Residents:	4204 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	218 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.lucens.ch
Lucens village and castle
Location of the municipality

Lucens is a municipality in the Broye-Vully district in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland . The former German names Lobsingen and Losingen are no longer used today.

geography

Aerial photo (1949)

Lucens is 498 m above sea level. M., 14.5 km southwest of the district capital Payerne (linear distance). The village extends in the middle Broyetal , on both sides of the river Cerjaule , which emerges from the Vallon des Vaux into the valley level of the Broye, in the eastern Vaud Central Plateau .

The area of ​​the 6.3 km² municipal area comprises a section of the central Broye valley and the molasse hill country bordering to the west. To the northeast of Lucens, the entire flat valley floor of the Broye, around 1 km wide, belongs to the municipality; southwest of the village, the border with Curtilles runs along the Broye, which is canalised and straightened here. The community area extends westward from the valley floor to the upper edge of the steep slope of the Cremin plateau. To the west of Lucens, the municipal soil extends into the largely wooded Vallon des Vaux, which, together with its short side valleys, is sunk into the molasse layers of the hill country. The range of hills between the Vallon des Vaux and the Broyetal is covered by the Bois à Ban forest and reaches Créta at 690 m above sea level. M. the highest point of Lucens. In 1997, 20% of the municipal area was in settlements, 36% in forests and woodlands, 41% in agriculture and around 3% was unproductive land.

Lucens includes the industrial and commercial zones in the Broyetal and several individual farms. Neighboring municipalities of Lucens are Bussy-sur-Moudon , Chavannes-sur-Moudon , Curtilles , Lovatens , Montanaire , Moudon , Valbroye and Villars-le-Comte , in the canton of Vaud, as well as Billens-Hennens , Cheiry , Prévondavaux , Siviriez , Surpierre and Ursy in Canton of Friborg .

population

With 4,204 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018), Lucens is one of the medium-sized municipalities in the canton of Vaud and is the second largest municipality in the Moudon district in terms of population. Of the residents, 82.0% speak French, 5.0% speak Italian and 3.5% speak Albanian (as of 2000). The population of Lucens was 1517 in 1900. Particularly in the years from 1960 to 1970 the population increased sharply, after which it remained stable for some time at around 2100 inhabitants. After a maximum around 1990 with 2320 inhabitants, a slight population decline has been recorded again in recent years. At the end of 2015, before five municipalities were incorporated, the population was 3,334.

economy

Until the second half of the 19th century, Lucens was a predominantly agricultural village. The economic boom in Lucens began with the establishment of the Junod gemstone cutting shop in 1862. The company, which at times employed almost 1,000 people, was closed in 1931. In addition, other important companies in the stone cutting and watchmaking industry emerged, for example Tanner Frères SA (1880), Gasser-Ravussin SA (1921) and Bunter SA (1917).

Lucens thus developed into an important industrial location in the middle Broyetal, whose status it still holds today. In 2001, 57% of the workforce was employed in the industrial sector, while the service sector accounted for 39% and the primary sector for 4% of the workforce.

Agriculture with arable farming and cattle breeding as well as forestry are only of marginal importance in the income structure of the population today. The commercial and industrial zones extend in the Broyetal between the railway line and the Broye. Important companies still today are Gasser-Ravussin SA and Reymond & Co SA (in the field of microtechnology ) and Isover SA (insulation material). Other companies have specialized in the construction industry, the transport industry, metal construction, IT and the electrotechnical industry.

Lucens experimental nuclear power plant

In the course of the 1960s the underground experimental nuclear power plant Lucens (VAKL) was built. On January 29, 1968, the research nuclear reactor was the first to generate electricity in Switzerland with the help of nuclear power. The plant was also intended to produce plutonium for a Swiss atomic bomb . After a short period of operation, a momentous incident occurred on January 21, 1969, when problems with the cooling system led to a partial core meltdown . Radioactive gases escaped into the cavern, which, however, could be isolated and sealed. The accident is now classified as a level 5 event on the INES scale. The danger to humans and the environment was limited because the reactor was located in a mountain tunnel .

See also : List of accidents in nuclear facilities

traffic

The community is very well developed in terms of traffic. It is located on main road 1 from Lausanne via Payerne to Bern . Transit traffic from Payerne to Lausanne, which at times reached high frequencies, especially before the opening of the motorways from Bern to western Switzerland, is routed around Lucens on a bypass. On August 25, 1876, the railway line from Payerne via Moudon to Palézieux with a station in Lucens was put into operation.

history

The place was first mentioned in documents in 963 under the name villa Losingus . The names Locens (1157) and Lucens (1217) appeared later . The place name probably goes back to the Burgundian personal name Lgenau and means for the people of the same .

Lucens had belonged to the bishops of Lausanne since the 10th century , but for a long time lagged behind the Curtilles on the opposite side of the Broye valley . In the place of today's castle there was probably already a castle-like complex in Burgundian times, which was expanded in the 11th and 12th centuries. It was only with the further expansion and relocation of the episcopal residence from Curtilles to Lucens in the 13th century that the place became more important. From then on Lucens was the summer residence of the bishops of Lausanne. The castle was set on fire by the Confederates in the course of the Burgundian Wars in 1476 , but was later rebuilt.

As one of the last places in Vaud, Lucens was conquered by the Bernese in 1536. With this the village came under the administration of the Moudon Bailiwick . After the first bailiff had still had his seat in Moudon, the second, Wolfgang von Erlach , moved his headquarters to the castle of Lucens in 1542, which he considered to be much easier to defend than the bailiff's seat in Moudon. All other bailiffs of the Bernese Bailiwick of Moudon then resided in Lucens, which formed its own castleague with a court of law. Lucens thus became the actual administrative center in the middle Broyetal.

After the collapse of the Ancien Régime , Lucens 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 Moudon district and lost its position as an administrative center. A new economic boom did not take place until after 1850 with industrialization and the establishment of a gemstone cutting shop in 1862.

With effect from January 1, 2011, the previously independent municipality of Oulens-sur- Lucens was incorporated into Lucens.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Lucens

The outstanding building by Lucens is the former episcopal castle, which was built in the 13th century in a strategically excellent location on the rocky spur between the Vallon des Vaux and the Broyetal northwest of the village. Major alterations and extensions took place in the middle of the 16th century, when the castle was chosen to be the seat of the bailiff. The oldest parts from the Middle Ages are the Savoyard style, round and 26 m high keep (13th century) and its adjoining buildings and walls. The irregular hall with oriel tower and a double curtain wall was built during the Bernese period. The castle became the property of the canton in 1798, but was sold by the canton in 1803 and has since changed hands several times.

The most famous owner was certainly Adrian Conan Doyle, the son of the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . On his initiative, the Sherlock Holmes Museum was set up in the castle in 1965. After the death of Adrian Conan Doyle (1970) the castle changed hands again. Today (2005) it is no longer accessible to the public. The Sherlock Holmes Museum was relocated to the Maison Rouge in the village.

At the entrance to the castle is the Gothic castle chapel Sainte-Agnès, which was built in the 14th century under episcopal supervision. In the choir it contains wall paintings from the 15th century; the glass paintings were created in 1952 by J. Prahin. In the old town center some stately town houses and farmhouses from the 17th to 19th centuries have been preserved.

literature

• Monique Fontannaz, Brigitte Pradervand: Le district de la Broye-Vully 1. (= The art monuments of Switzerland. Volume 128). Ed.  Society for Swiss Art History SKG. Bern 2015, pp. 122–247, ISBN 978-3-03797-180-2 .

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  Look at Lucens

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  Lucens Castle

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  town hall

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  Maison rouge with the Sherlock Holmes Museum

Web links

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

• Official website of the municipality of Lucens (French)
• Alexandre Pahud: Lucens. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Aerial views of the village
• Château de Lucens (French)
• Treatise on the Swiss nuclear weapons program

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. ^ Roman Schürmann: Helvetische Jäger. Dramas and scandals in the military sky. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-85869-406-5 , p. 135 ff.
3. ^ "If necessary, also against the own population" in: Tages-Anzeiger of January 28, 2011