Val-de-Travers is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

canton of Neuchâtel The Republic and Canton of Neuchâtel (french: République et Canton de Neuchâtel); rm, Chantun Neuchâtel; it, Cantone di Neuchâtel is a French-speaking canton in western Switzerland. In 2007, its population was 169,782, of whom 39,654 (o ...

in Switzerland. It was created on 1 January 2009, when the former municipalities of

Boveresse Boveresse was a municipality in the district of Val-de-Travers in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. On 1 January 2009, the former municipalities of Boveresse, Buttes, Couvet, Fleurier, Les Bayards, Môtiers, Noiraigue, Saint-Sulpice and ...

Buttes __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...

Couvet Couvet was a municipality in the district of Val-de-Travers in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. On 1 January 2009, the former municipalities of Boveresse, Buttes, Couvet, Fleurier, Les Bayards, Môtiers, Noiraigue, Saint-Sulpice and Tr ...

, Fleurier,

Les Bayards Les Bayards was a municipality in the district of Val-de-Travers in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. On 1 January 2009, the former municipalities of Boveresse, Buttes, Couvet, Fleurier Fleurier was a municipality in the district o ...

Môtiers Môtiers was a municipality in the district of Val-de-Travers in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. On 1 January 2009, the former municipalities of Boveresse, Buttes, Couvet, Fleurier, Les Bayards, Môtiers, Noiraigue, Saint-Sulpice and ...

Noiraigue Noiraigue was a municipality in the district of Val-de-Travers in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. On 1 January 2009, the former municipalities of Boveresse, Buttes, Couvet, Fleurier, Les Bayards, Môtiers, Noiraigue, Saint-Sulpic ...

, Saint-Sulpice and Travers merged to form Val-de-Travers.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 14 January 2010 The region is known for its production of

absinthe Absinthe (, ) is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from several plants, including the flowers and leaves of ''Artemisia absinthium'' ("grand wormwood"), together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. Historical ...

History

Val-de-Travers is first mentioned in 1150 as '.

Geography

Val-de-Travers has an area, , of . Of this area, or 42.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 50.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.3% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.5%. Out of the forested land, 46.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.0% is used for growing crops and 23.9% is pastures and 13.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in a valley in the Neuchâtel Jura. The valley provides a connection between the Swiss Plateau and

Franche-Comté Franche-Comté (, ; ; Frainc-Comtou: ''Fraintche-Comtè''; frp, Franche-Comtât; also german: Freigrafschaft; es, Franco Condado; all ) is a cultural and historical region of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of Doubs, ...

. The river L'Areuse (previous called La Reuse, the name morphed into Areuse), flows lengthways of the valley, most of this river is a shallow river, and about 10 meters wide, it narrows into a gorge near

. Historically, this river provided much of the water and fish for the valley. The municipality was located in the

Val-de-Travers District Val-de-Travers District was one of the six districts of the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, until the district level was eliminated on 1 January 2018. It is famous for its clock industry. The Canton is largely rural and farming remains impor ...

, until the district level was eliminated on 1 January 2018.

Demographics

Val-de-Travers had a population () of . , 18.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Superweb database – Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 In the 10 years (2000–2010) the population decreased by 2.5%. Migration accounted for -1.8% whilst births and deaths accounted for -1.6%.
accessed 3 November 2011 Most of the population () speaks French (88.9%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (3.0%) and German is the third (2.7%). the population was 48.6% male and 51.4% female. The population was made up of 4,161 Swiss men (38.4% of the population) and 1,103 (10.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 4,677 Swiss women (43.2%) and 891 (8.2%) non-Swiss women.Canton of Neuchatel Statistics
, ''République et canton de Neuchâtel – Recensement annuel de la population'' accessed 13 October 2011 , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 55.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.1%. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.39%.

Heritage sites of national significance

The Farm House no. 1201 or Monlési, the Maison des Chats or Petitpierre, the Séchoir à absinthe, Ivernois Castle and the Maison Boy de la Tour, the Hôtel des Six-Communes, the medieval church of St-Pierre, the Temple in Môtiers and Areuse Bridge are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The villages of Buttes, Les Verrières, Môtiers, Couvet, Fleurier and Travers are all part of the

Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage. Sites of national importance Types The types are based on t ...

. File:Boveresse, ferme du Monlési (Nr 1201) 1.JPG, Farm House no. 1201 or Monlési File:Maison des chats 3.jpg, Maison des chats File:Boveresse-Sechoir.jpg, Séchoir à absinthe in

, this particular 'rocks' back and forth because of the wind, it creates a draft used to help dry the wormwood. File:MotierIvernois.jpg , Ivernois Castle, Maison Boy de la Tour File:Motiers-Hotel-Six-Communes.jpg, Motiers-Hotel-Six-Communes, previously used to be a midway station, used to house stables and rooms amongst other services. Romans also used a location near the Six-Communes for the same purpose File:Motiers-Prieure.jpg, Medieval church of St-Pierre File:Temple Môtiers.jpg, Temple of Môtiers File:Travers - Pont sur l'Areuse.jpg, Areuse Bridge

Economy

, Val-de-Travers had an unemployment rate of 6.6%. , there were 322 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 139 businesses involved in this sector. 1,980 people were employed in the

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction. ...

and there were 162 businesses in this sector. 2,188 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 374 businesses in this sector. There were residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity. Of the working population, 13.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.3% used a private car. Asphalt was exploited until 1986 at

La Presta Asphalt Mine La Presta Asphalt Mine (french: Mines d'asphalte de la Presa) is a former asphalt mine in the Val-de-Travers Val-de-Travers is a municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It was created on 1 January 2009, when the former municipa ...

. It is nowadays a museum.

Education

In the canton of Neuchâtel most municipalities provide two years of non-mandatory

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

, followed by five years of mandatory primary education. The next four years of mandatory secondary education is provided at thirteen larger secondary schools, which many students travel out of their home municipality to attend. During the 2010–11 school year, there were 10.5 kindergarten classes with a total of 198 students in Val-de-Travers. In the same year, there were 29 primary classes with a total of 528 students.Statistical Department of the Canton of Neuchâtel
Mémento de l'année scolaire 2010/2011 accessed 17 October 2011

Transportation

The municipality has seven railway stations. Two, and , are located on the Neuchâtel–Pontarlier line with service to and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The other five are located on the Travers–Buttes line, which also servers Travers.

Notable people

* Emer de Vattel (1714 in Couvet – 1767) an international lawyer *

Ferdinand Berthoud Ferdinand Berthoud (born 18 March 1727, in Plancemont-sur-Couvet, Principality of Neuchâtel; died 20 June 1807, in Groslay, Val d'Oise), was a scientist and watchmaker. He became master watchmaker in Paris in 1753. Berthoud, who held the posi ...

(1727 in Plancemont-sur-Couvet – 1807) a scientist and watchmaker * Jonas de Gélieu (1740 in Les Bayards – 1827) a Swiss pastor and beekeeper *

Salomé de Gélieu Salomé de Gélieu (17 April 1742, Les Bayards - 29 March 1820, Colombier) was a Swiss educator and governess to several members of princely courts in Europe. Life Salomé was the daughter of the preacher Jacques de Gélieu and his wife Elizabeth, ...

(1742 in Les Bayards – 1820) a Swiss educator and governess to several members of princely courts in Europe * Léo Lesquereux (1806 in Fleurier – 1889) a Swiss bryologist and a pioneer of American

paleobotany Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

Édouard Piaget Édouard Piaget (3 November 1817 in Les Bayards – 10 September 1910 in Couvet) was a Swiss entomologist who specialised in lice (''Phthiraptera''). Life As a young man, Piaget became a teacher of French at Mr. de Raedt's , an upper class ...

(1817 in Les Bayards – 1910) a Swiss

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

who specialised in lice *

Charles Édouard Guillaume Charles Édouard Guillaume (15 February 1861, in Fleurier, Switzerland – 13 May 1938, in Sèvres, France) was a Swiss physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1920 in recognition of the service he had rendered to precision measuremen ...

(1861 in Fleurier – 1938) a Swiss physicist who received the

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

in 1920 * Édouard Bovet (1797 in Fleurier – 1849) a Swiss watchmaker and founder of the

Bovet Fleurier Bovet Fleurier SA is a Swiss brand of luxury watchmakers chartered 1 May 1822 in London, UK by Édouard Bovet. It is most noted for its pocket watches manufactured for the Chinese market in the 19th century. Today it produces high-end artistic w ...

watch company *

Denis de Rougemont Denys Louis de Rougemont (September 8, 1906 – December 6, 1985), known as Denis de Rougemont (), was a Swiss writer and cultural theorist who wrote in French. One of the non-conformists of the 1930s, he addressed the perils of totalitarianis ...

(1906 in Couvet – 1985) a Swiss writer and cultural theorist * Daniel Bovet (1907 in Fleurier – 1992) a Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist who won the 1957

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...

for his discovery of drugs that block the actions of specific

neurotransmitter A neurotransmitter is a signaling molecule secreted by a neuron to affect another cell across a synapse. The cell receiving the signal, any main body part or target cell, may be another neuron, but could also be a gland or muscle cell. Neuro ...

s * Fritz Tschannen (1920 – 2011 in Val-de-Travers) a Swiss accordion player, former ski jumper who competed at the

1948 Winter Olympics The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games (german: V. Olympische Winterspiele; french: Ves Jeux olympiques d'hiver; it, V Giochi olimpici invernali; rm, V Gieus olimpics d'enviern) and commonly known as St. Moritz ...

and a conductor until 1999, when he retired to Fleurier

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Neuchâtel