Le Locle

Le Locle (; german: Luggli) is a municipality in the Canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.

It is situated in the Jura Mountains, a few kilometers from the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds.
It is the third smallest city in Switzerland (in Switzerland a place needs more than 10,000 inhabitants to be considered a city).

Le Locle is known as a center of Swiss watchmaking, even cited as the birthplace of the industry, with roots dating back to the 1600s. The municipality has been home to manufactures such a
Favre-Leuba
Mido, Zodiac, Tissot, Ulysse Nardin, Zenith, Montblanc, Certina as well as Universal Genève, before the latter company relocated to Geneva. The town's history in watchmaking is documented at one of the world's premier horological museums, the Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle, Monts Castle, located in a 19th-century country manor on a hill north of the city. Restored historic underground mills (grainmill, oilmill, sawmill) can be seen in a cave located about one kilometer () west of the city center.

The name of the town derives from the word for ''lake'' or ''trou d'eau''.

Unesco World Heritage Sites

Le Locle, as well as La Chaux-de-Fonds, owes its survival to the manufacturing and exports of watches. The industry of watch making was brought to Le Locle in the 17th century by Daniel Jeanrichard, a self-taught watchmaker who encouraged the farmers of the area to start manufacturing watch components for him during the long winters. In the 20th century, the micro-mechanical industry was added.

The watchmaking cities of Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds have jointly received recognition from UNESCO for their exceptional universal value.

Due to the altitude (around ) and the lack of water (porous limestone underground) the land is ill-suited to farming. Planning and buildings reflect the watch-making artisans' need for rational organization. They were rebuilt in the early 19th century, after extensive fires.

Along an open-ended scheme of parallel strips on which residential housing and workshops intermingle, their town planning reflects the needs of the local watch-making culture that dates back to the 17th century, and which is still alive today. Both towns present outstanding examples of mono-industrial manufacturing towns, which are still well-preserved and active. Their urban planning has accommodated the transition from the artisans’ production of a cottage industry to the more concentrated factory production of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Karl Marx described La Chaux-de-Fonds as a “huge factory-town” in '' Das Kapital'', where he analyzed the division of labour in the watch-making industry of the Jura.

It is the tenth Swiss site to be awarded World Heritage status, joining others such as the Old City of Bern, the Rhaetian Railway, and the Abbey and Convent of St. Gall.

History

Le Locle is first mentioned in 1332 as ''dou Locle''.

Prehistory

The earliest traces of human settlements come from the end of the Mesolithic period (6000–5000 BC) in shelter in the Col des Roches. The site includes the oldest pottery found in the Canton of Neuchâtel, along with many tools, the molar of a mammoth and deer and wild boar bones. The shelter was discovered in 1926 by a customs official and was the first site of its kind studied in Switzerland.

However, between 4000 BC and the Middle Ages nothing is known about the Le Locle area.

Middle Ages

In 1150 the valley, in which Le Locle would later be built, was granted by Renaud and William Valanginian to the abbey of Fontaine-André. In 1360, John II of Aarberg, the Lord of Valanginian, received Le Locle as a fief from Count Louis of Neuchâtel. The heavily wooded portion of the Jura Mountains around Le Locle, were cleared by colonists who later received the status of free peasants. These first free farmers received a charter in 1372 which codified their rights and freedoms. At the beginning of the 15th century, this charter was reconfirmed during the foundation of the Mairie or town government. The inhabitants of Le Locle were given the right to own land that they had cleared, as long as they continued to farm it and paid taxes on it. The feudal lords granted them these freedoms to encourage settlements in the mountains. Beginning in the 14th century Le Locle and La Sagne formed a parish together. The Church of Mary Magdalene in Le Locle was built in 1351.

As a result of increasing cross-border conflicts, in 1476, Le Locle entered into a defensive alliance with Bern.

In 1502, 37 people in Le Locle were given the opportunity to pay £1780 for the title of "Citizen of Valangin". These citizens had the privilege to lead the community and to choose their own mayor and bailiff.

Early modern era

The tower of the Church of Mary Magdalene, the landmark of the city, arose early in the 16th century. A few years after the tower was built, in 1536, Le Locle converted to the Protestant faith. This old church was rebuilt in the mid-18th century. A German church was built in 1844, but demolished in 1967. The Catholic chapel was built in 1861.

In 1592, the Valangin fiefs returned to the County of Neuchâtel, but neither the legal status of residents of the Mairie of Le Locle or its function as a district court was affected. The 1476 alliance with Bern remained in effect and during the Thirty Years' War as well as the invasion of Louis XIV in Franche-Comté, Bernese soldiers came to support the town. Le Locle sent soldiers to support their ally in 1712 during the battles of Mellingen and Villmergen

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