Villers-le-Lac
| Villers-le-Lac | ||
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| region | Bourgogne-Franche-Comté | |
| Department | Doubs | |
| Arrondissement | Pontarlier | |
| Canton | Morteau | |
| Community association | Val de Morteau | |
| Coordinates | 47 ° 4 ′ N , 6 ° 40 ′ E | |
| height | 650-1,260 m | |
| surface | 30.17 km 2 | |
| Residents | 4,985 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 165 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 25130 | |
| INSEE code | 25321 | |
| Website | www.villers-le-lac.com | |
 The Doubs at Viller-le-Lac |
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Villers-le-Lac is a French commune with 4,985 inhabitants (as of January 1 2017) in Doubs in the region Bourgogne Franche-Comté .
geography
Villers-le-Lac is located at 780 m , five kilometers east of Morteau and about 13 km west of the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds (as the crow flies). The village extends in the Jura , at a slightly elevated position on the sun-exposed slope in the wide basin of the Doubs shortly before its widening to Lac de Chaillexon (Lac des Brenets), at the northern foot of the Meix-Musy, near the border with Switzerland .
The area of the 30.17 km² municipal area covers a section of the French Jura. The central part of the area is taken up by the open valley basin of the Doubs. The wide flat valley floor lies at 750 m and is crossed by the river in a winding course. East of Villers-le-Lac the river widens to the long but narrow Lac de Chaillexon. The valley floor is moored and flooded during high water, which is why the villages were built in a slightly elevated position.
The Doubstal is flanked in the south by the Meix-Musy ridge, at which the highest point of Villers-le-Lac is reached at 1260 m. The partly wooded, partly pastureland ridge is subdivided by several short erosion valleys. The most important of these is the Rançonnière , which drains the Le Locle basin underground and rises below the Col des Roches . It flows into the Lac de Chaillexon and forms the eastern boundary of the municipality. North of the Doubs, the municipal area extends over a relatively gently rising slope on the wide ridges of Meix-Jacques and Meix-Dos-d'Ane ( 1088 m ). From a geological and tectonic point of view, this ridge forms an anticline of the Jura folds and is oriented in the south-west-north-east direction in accordance with the direction of strike of the mountains in this region.
With a long tip, the municipality floor extends to the northeast and always includes the left (northern) valley side of the Doubs. With the Lac de Chaillexon, the Doubs enters a canyon-like, largely uninhabited valley cut into the Jura plateau. Together with the Saut du Doubs, it forms a 27 m high waterfall and then reaches the Lac de Moron reservoir (also called Lac du Châtelot). The steep valley flanks are criss-crossed by striking limestone bands and projections. The Mont Châtelard ( 1030 m ) in the extreme northeast of the municipality serves as a beautiful vantage point over the Doubstal .
In addition to the actual village, Villers-le-Lac includes various hamlets and numerous individual farms, including:
- Les Bassots ( 770 m ) south of the Doubs at the beginning of the Lac de Chaillexon
- Les Pargots ( 760 m ) on the south bank of Lac de Chaillexon at the mouth of the Rançonnière
- Chaillexon ( 802 m ) on the slope north of Lac de Chaillexon
- Curcol ( 820 m ) on the northern slope of the Doubs
- L'Essart-Fourçan ( 880 m ) on the northern slope of the Doubs
- Champagne ( 890 m ) on the northern slope of the Doubs
- La Courpée ( 935 m ) on a terrace on the northern slope of the Doubs
- Cernembert ( 958 m ) on the northern slope of the Doubs
- Les Majors ( 922 m ) on a terrace on the northern slope of the Doubs
- Le Pissoux ( 862 m ) north of Mont Châtelard above the deeply cut Doubstal
- Le Prélot ( 1000 m ) on a saddle on the northern slope of the Meix-Musy
- Le Chauffaud ( 1074 m ) on a plateau above the Col des Roches
- Sur la Roche ( 1130 m ) in a hollow northeast of the Meix-Musy
Neighboring municipalities of Villers-le-Lac are Montlebon and Les Fins in the west, Noël-Cerneux , La Chenalotte and Le Barboux in the north, Grand'Combe-des-Bois in the northeast and the Swiss municipalities of Les Planchettes and Les Brenets in the east as well as Le Locle and Le Cerneux-Péquignot in the south.
history
The area of Villers-le-Lac was already inhabited in prehistoric times, which has been proven by various finds at the Rocher des Pêcheurs on the banks of the Lac de Chaillexon. In the 12th century the area of Villers-le-Lac was reclaimed by monks from the Cluniac priory of Morteau. As a result, the village belonged to the lordship of Morteau, which was initially under the sovereignty of the Lords of Montfaucon , from 1325 to 1507 under that of the Counts of Neuchâtel and then belonged to the Franche-Comté. Together with Franche-Comté , the village came to France with the Peace of Nijmegen in 1678. Until 1801 the municipality was called Lac , then Lac-de-Villers , and it was not until 1948 that the current name Villers-le-Lac became official.
Around 1840, the home-based manufacture of watch accessories in Villers-le-Lac became important in the economic life of the population. This was followed by the actual watch industry around 1880. Several watch factories were built, which led to a rapid economic boom in the town. Despite various crises, they shaped the economic direction of Villers-le-Lac throughout the 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, Villers-le-Lac was also important as a mountain health resort, with several sanatoriums being built on the sunny slope above the village.
Attractions
The village church of Villers-le-Lac was built in the 19th century and has a marble statue of the Blessed Virgin from the 17th century.
In Les Bassots there is the Saint-Joseph chapel, which was built in 1685 and has remarkable furnishings .
There are other churches in Le Chauffaud (18th century) and in Le Pissoux (17th century). The townscape of Villers-le-Lac is urban with numerous four- to six-storey cubic houses, most of which date from around 1850 to 1900. Villers-le-Lac is home to two museums, namely the Musée de la Montre (history of the watchmaking industry) and the Musée de la Radio. The Saut du Doubs and Lac de Chaillexon, with its cliffs that sometimes drop vertically into the lake, are among the much-visited natural attractions in the region.
population
| Population development | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| year | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2006 | 2016 |
| Residents | 3728 | 3828 | 4428 | 4142 | 4203 | 4196 | 4339 | 4889 |
With 4985 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) Villers-le-Lac is one of the medium-sized municipalities in the Doubs department. After the population in the first half of the 20th century had always been in the range between 2500 and 3100 people, there has been significant population growth since the beginning of the 1950s. The provisional peak was registered in the mid-1970s with around 4500 inhabitants. After a temporary decline due to the crisis in the watch industry in the 1970s, an upward trend has been observed again in recent years.
Economy and Infrastructure
Today Villers-le-Lac is an important location for the high-tech and specialized watch industry. Other important industries include micromechanics, wood processing and mechanical engineering. There are also numerous retail stores. Thanks to the large municipal area, agriculture (cattle breeding and dairy farming, arable farming) and forestry still play a certain role. Many of the workers who live in Villers-le-Lac are cross-border commuters who work in the neighboring Swiss towns of Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds.
As a resort in a popular excursion area in the High Jura, Villers-le-Lac also benefits from tourism today. The community is geared towards both summer tourism (hiking, water sports, cycling, fishing) and winter tourism (alpine and Nordic skiing, ice skating).
The village is well developed in terms of traffic. It is located on the main road D 461, which leads from Besançon via Morteau to La Chaux-de-Fonds. Further road connections exist with Les Brenets and Le Barboux. Villers-le-Lac had a train station on the railway line from Besançon to Le Locle .
literature
- Le Patrimoine des Communes du Doubs. Volume 2, Flohic Editions, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-84234-087-6 , pp. 787-790.
