Saint-Prex

Saint-Prex
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Vaud (VD)
District :	Morges
BFS no. :	5646
Postal code :	1162
UN / LOCODE :	CH SPR
Coordinates :	524 805  /  148 041 coordinates: 46 ° 28 '46 "  N , 6 ° 27' 34"  O ; CH1903:  524 805  /  one hundred forty-eight thousand and forty-one
Height :	377  m above sea level M.
Height range :	372–464 m above sea level M.
Area :	5.54  km²
Residents:	5682 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	1026 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.saint-prex.ch
Castle of Saint-Prex
Location of the municipality

Saint-Prex is a municipality in the Morges district in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland .

geography

Saint-Prex is 377  m above sea level. M. , 4.5 km southwest of the district capital Morges (air line). The historic town extends on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Geneva in the Vaud Central Plateau .

Aerial photo (1959)

The 5.5 km² municipal area covers a section on the north shore of Lake Geneva. The community soil extends northward from the lakeshore over the flat edge of the bank to the adjoining terrace about 50 m higher. The northern border is the wooded valley of the Boiron de Morges river . At Bois Billens is 455  m above sea level. M. reached the highest point of Saint-Prex. In the west, the border runs along the short Ruisseau des Chenaux creek , while the area in the east extends to the mouth of the Boiron in Lake Geneva. The river has created a small alluvial cone here. In 1997 37% of the municipal area was in settlements, 7% in forests and woodlands, 55% in agriculture and a little less than 1% was unproductive land.

Saint-Prex includes larger housing estates, the hamlet of Beaufort ( 410  m above sea level ) on the edge of the terrace above the village and Les Iles ( 425  m above sea level ) south of the Boiron, as well as some individual farms. The neighboring municipalities of Saint-Prex are Buchillon , Etoy , Villars-sous-Yens , Lussy-sur-Morges , Lully and Tolochenaz .

population

With 5682 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018), Saint-Prex is one of the medium-sized municipalities in the canton of Vaud. Of the residents, 82.5% are French-speaking, 5% German-speaking and 3.3% Italian-speaking (as of 2000). The population of Saint-Prex was 528 in 1850 and 882 in 1900. Since 1950 (1507 inhabitants) there has been a rapid population increase with a tripling of the number of inhabitants within 50 years.

economy

Until the end of the 19th century, Saint-Prex was an agricultural town. Today agriculture and viticulture have only a subordinate role in the income structure of the population. The southern slopes of the terrain terrace are ideally suited as wine-growing areas.

The town's economic boom took place at the beginning of the 20th century with the establishment of the Verrerie SA glass factory in 1911 by Henri Cornaz . As Vetropack Holding AG , this still has its legal seat in Saint-Prex, while the company headquarters are in Bülach . There is also a company specializing in measuring instruments and numerous small businesses. The place has a glass museum (since 1982) as well as a tourist infrastructure (hotels, lido and boat harbor) and the cultural and sports center Vieux-Moulin.

In the last few decades, Saint-Prex has increasingly developed into a residential community. Many workers are commuters who work mainly in Lausanne and Morges.

Since 2006, Saint-Prex has been the headquarters of Vale International AG, a subsidiary of the Brazilian mining group Vale . Vale International generates an annual profit of several billion francs, around a third of the group profit.

traffic

The community has good transport connections. It is located on main road 1 from Geneva along the lakeshore to Lausanne . The motorway connections Aubonne and Morges-Ouest on the A1 (Geneva – Lausanne) opened in 1964 , which crosses the municipality, are each around 5 km from the town center. On April 14, 1858, the section from Morges to Coppet of the Lausanne – Geneva railway line with a station in Saint-Prex was put into operation. Saint-Prex is also connected to the passenger shipping network on Lake Geneva .

history

Saint-Prex can look back on a very long tradition of settlement. The remains of a Neolithic settlement have been discovered near Fraidaigue . A necropolis with around 30 graves (mostly body burials) dates from the late Bronze Age . Further traces have been preserved from Roman times and the early Middle Ages .

The place was first mentioned in a document in 885 under the name of Sanctus Prothasius . At this time, a church is mentioned on the site where the Lausanne bishop Protasius is said to have been buried in the middle of the 7th century. The current name is a dialect form of the name of Bishop Saint Prothais. The church and the place that arose in its surroundings had belonged to the cathedral chapter of Lausanne since the High Middle Ages . For strategic reasons, this allowed the place, which had held a market since 1223, to be fortified in 1234. In 1358 Saint-Prex came under the sovereignty of the Counts of Savoy .

With the conquest of Vaud by Bern in 1536, the town came under the administration of the Bailiwick of Morges and lost its importance under this political and economic dependence. The building material of the old city wall was used in the 17th century for the construction of the war port in Morges. After the collapse of the Ancien Régime , Saint-Prex 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 Morges district.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Saint-Prex

City gate of Saint-Prex

Adapted to the shape of the Saint-Prex peninsula, the historic town has the rare layout of an almost equilateral triangle. The main road stretches from the gate (in the middle of the northern side of the triangle) to the port at the tip of the peninsula. There are several small cross streets at right angles to it.

The historic town center with residential buildings and partly agricultural outbuildings has retained the character of an agriculturally oriented small town to this day. Only the city gate with a bell and clock tower from the 18th century remains of the former fortification. In the east of the old town rises the castle, of which only the mighty square keep from the original building from the 13th century has been preserved. The current residential buildings of the castle date from the 16th century. The manor house Le Manoir on the southern edge of the old town also has a medieval watchtower from the 13th century. Numerous town, patrician and farm houses date from the 16th to 19th centuries.

Outside the historic town stands the reformed parish church of Saint-Protais, which dates back to the 9th century. The current single-nave building was built in the 12th century (choir) and 13th century (nave). Inside there are wall paintings from the 14th century.

The community received the Wakker Prize in 1973 for maintaining the historically valuable townscape .

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  City gate with clock and bell tower

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  Parish Church of Saint-Protais

Personalities

• Alberto Tognola (born August 19, 1951 in Busto Arsizio ), painter, engraver, active in Morges

literature

• Patrick Schaefer: Salle de la Paix, Saint-Prex VD. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 419). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1987, ISBN 3-85782-419-0 .

Web links

Commons : Saint-Prex  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the municipality of Saint-Prex (French)
• Catherine Santschi: Saint-Prex. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Aerial photography

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. ^ Karl Lüönd : Zeitgeist in the glass. From Verrerie de St-Prex to Vetropack in 100 years. A dynamic Swiss family company in a state of flux in technology, the market and the environment. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-03823-705-1 , p. 22.
3. ↑ Vetropack Holding AG: Annual Report and Compensation Report 2016 . Bülach 2017, pp. 55, 90.
4. ↑ Switzerland on Sunday - Tax discounts à gogo for Vale , November 16, 2013.
5. ↑ Alberto Tognola. In: Sikart
6. ↑ Alberto Tognola in visartevaud.ch retrieved 1 January 2016