Villarzel VD

VD is the abbreviation for the canton of Vaud in Switzerland and is used to avoid confusion with other entries of the name Villarzel .

Villarzel
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Vaud (VD)
District :	Broye-Vully
BFS no. :	5830
Postal code :	1555
Coordinates :	559 796  /  177 596 coordinates: 46 ° 44 '54 "  N , 6 ° 54' 45"  O ; CH1903:  five hundred and fifty-nine thousand seven hundred and ninety-six  /  177596
Height :	622  m above sea level M.
Height range :	473–798 m above sea level M.
Area :	7.66  km²
Residents:	446 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	58 inhabitants per km²
Villarzel
Location of the municipality

Villarzel is a municipality in the Broye-Vully district in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland .

With effect from July 1, 2006, the merger of Villarzel with the neighboring communities of Rossens and Sédeilles became legally binding. The new political municipality still bears the name Villarzel.

geography

Villarzel is 622  m above sea level. M. , 7 km south-southwest of the district capital Payerne (air line). The street row village extends on a terrace on the upper eastern slope of the Broye , in the eastern Vaudois Plateau .

The 7.7 km² municipal area covers a section of the hill country between the Broyetal and the Glânetal . The area is largely bounded in the north by the valley of the village stream of Marnand, which is dug deep into the molasse layers . From here, the municipality extends southward over the relatively gently sloping slope of Villarzel, which is partly interrupted by terraced terrain, to the Bois des Râpes forest area (up to 751  m above sea level ). To the east of the heights of Les Râpes are the slopes of Sédeilles and Rossens, which are also slightly inclined to the north. In the Forêt de Farzin is 798  m above sea level. M. reached the highest point of Villarzel. To the west the area extends down to the erosion valley of the Vauban brook into the Broye valley. In 1997, 5% of the municipal area was accounted for by settlements, 24% for forests and woodlands and 71% for agriculture.

Villarzel includes the district of La Ville ( 604  m above sea level ) on a promontory above the valley of the brook of Marnand and Sédeilles ( 688  m above sea level ) with the farm settlement Champs Paccot ( 694  m above sea level ), Rossens ( 721  m above sea level ) and some individual farms. Villarzel's neighboring municipalities are Valbroye and Henniez in the canton of Vaud and Châtonnaye , Villaz and Romont (FR) in the canton of Friborg .

population

With 446 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018), Villarzel is one of the small communities in the canton of Vaud. 92.4% of the residents are French-speaking, 5.0% German-speaking and 1.3% Portuguese-speaking (as of 2000). In 1900 the population of Villarzel was 296. After the population had decreased by almost 50% to 158 people by 1990 due to strong emigration, a slight population increase has been observed since then.

economy

Until the second half of the 20th century, Villarzel was predominantly an agricultural village. Even today, arable farming , fruit growing and cattle breeding play an important role in the income structure of the population. Some other jobs are available in local small businesses and in the service sector. In the last few decades the village has also developed into a residential community. Some workers are commuters who work in the surrounding larger towns.

traffic

The community is located off the major thoroughfares on a connecting road from Marnand to Châtonnaye . Villarzel is connected to the public transport network by a postbus course that runs from Payerne to Romont .

history

Aerial photo (1963)

The place was first mentioned in a document in 1228 under the name Vilarsel . The place name is a diminutive form of the word Villars , which goes back to the late Latin villare (hamlet, homestead).

Around 1214, Bishop Berthold von Neuenburg had a castle built on the spur above the erosion valley of the brook that flows into the Broye near Marnand, around which a small settlement quickly developed. This settlement was fortified after 1230 under Bishop Boniface and was called Villarzel-l'Evêque in memory of the episcopal builders in the Middle Ages . The Burgvogtei Villarzel, which was under the Lausanne bishops, also included the villages of Sédeilles, Cerniaz, Rossens, Villars-Bramard, Marnand and Granges in the 13th and 14th centuries. Because the Vogt did not comply with the bishop's decisions, the castle was burned down around 1300 on the instructions of the latter. Although the castle was rebuilt, it sank into insignificance in the course of the 15th century and was left to decay.

Old coat of arms of Villarzel

With the conquest of Vaud by Bern in 1536, the village came under the administration of the Bailiwick of Moudon . After the collapse of the Ancien Régime , Villarzel 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 Payerne district.

After the voters of Villarzel, Rossens and Sédeilles had voted with a large majority for the merger of their communities, the merger became legally binding on July 1, 2006. The new political municipality is still called Villarzel. The entire community received a new coat of arms to make the merger more visible. An attempt was made to integrate the symbols of the earlier municipalities into a single coat of arms.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Villarzel

The reformed church, which stands outside the present village near the former castle, dates back to the middle of the 15th century and has a bell arcade. All that remains of the former episcopal castle is a fortified tower from the 13th century, which was rebuilt under the Bernese rule and partly used as a prison. The ruins of the castle served as a welcome quarry and were completely eroded over time.

The village shows the rare example of a uniform style. Almost all of the farmhouses on Dorfstrasse were built in the 17th century. They are partly built together.

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. 316–345, ISBN 978-3-03797-180-2 .

Web links

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

• Community information
• Aerial views of the village
• Gilbert Coutaz: Villarzel VD. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

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 .