Le Flon is a district of the city of

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

, in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. It is served by

Lausanne Métro The Lausanne Métro ( French: ''Métro de Lausanne'') system is a two-line urban rail transport system in Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland. Around a quarter of the system has been used for urban rail transport since 1877, when the route between th ...

lines 1 and 2 from

Lausanne-Flon station Lausanne-Flon is a railway and metro station in the Flon district of central Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the hub of the Lausanne Metro system. The station's initial building was also the first in the city to use electricity. A station r ...

Location

This area is in the bowl of a valley that has been filled. A river, also named Flon, once flowed through this valley and now runs underground. The area is situated in the central neighborhood of

History

The Flon was once a wooded and uninhabited valley. The early industrial development in the nineteenth century saw new mills,

tanneries Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

and fullers occupy the Flon valley, accompanied by a bad reputation due to the activity of leather work, which brought unpleasant smells, forcing Lausanne inhabitants to avoid the place. On March 12, 1874, the Compagnie du Chemin de fer Lausanne-Ouchy (which later became the Group Lausanne-Ouchy SA) was founded to provide transport for people and goods between the port of

Ouchy Ouchy is a port and a popular lakeside resort south of the centre of Lausanne in Switzerland, at the edge of Lake Geneva (french: lac Léman). Facilities Very popular with tourists for the views of nearby France (Évian-les-Bains, Thonon), ...

, the station of the then Jura-Simplon line, and the Place Saint-François. The Company became the owner of the valley in exchange for supporting all the costs of the work that was planned and which began the following June. Tunnels were dug between Lausanne and Ouchy, and the excavated soil was used to backfill the Flon, downstream of the Grand Pont (Great Bridge). This major undertaking lasted until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, giving the area during 40 years the looks of a wasteland to what was a once green valley. In the early twentieth century, the Flon had become the main freight station of the city of Lausanne. However, from 1950 the site was connected to the rest of the city that extended around the ancient valley, removing the reason to be of the Gare du Flon. A period started during which the site deteriorated and some warehouses were transformed into low rent offices. The nightclub MAD opened in the 1980s. In 1991, Line 1 of the

Lausanne Metro , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR- ...

opened, with its central terminus located at Lausanne-Flon, to give interchange with the

Métro Lausanne–Ouchy The Métro Lausanne – Ouchy or Métro-Ouchy (LO) was a rack railway which linked the lakeside at Ouchy with Lausanne railway station and the core of the city at Flon. The system also included a parallel line between the railway station and Flo ...

and LEB commuter trains to

Échallens Échallens is a municipality in the district of Gros-de-Vaud in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History The territory of the municipality was already settled very early. There are remains of a Bronze Age foundry. The first documentation dates ...

and

Bercher Bercher is a municipality in the district of Gros-de-Vaud in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Bercher is first mentioned in 1154 as ''de Berchiaco''. Geography Bercher has an area, , of . Of this area, or 56.7% is used for agric ...

. Up until the early 1990s, The Flon was considered a bad area of Lausanne. The Group Lausanne-Ouchy SA decided to start major work in accordance with their ''Plan partiel d'affectation'' which was divided into two parts (Flon Flon vision 1 and vision 2). In June 1999 the Municipal Council adopted the Lausanne PPP. The extensive work helped rehabilitate Le Flon, particularly with the opening of a seven-screen cinema complex along with a parking lot (which was given an award in 2003 by the European Parking Association Association), an English pub and a Thai restaurant.

Notes et references

External links

Page on the website of the City of Lausanne
{{Coord, 46, 31, 18, N, 6, 37, 37, E, region:CH_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Lausanne