Milvignes is a

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

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 formed on January 1, 2013, by merging the former municipalities

Auvernier Auvernier is a village in the district of Boudry in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. The municipalities of Auvernier, Bôle and Colombier merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Milvignes.Bôle Bôle is a former municipality in the district of Boudry in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. The municipalities of Auvernier, Bôle and Colombier merged on 1 January 2013 into the new municipality of Milvignes.

and Colombier.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 2 January 2013

History

Auvernier

Auvernier is first mentioned in 1011 as ''Averniacum''. The municipality was formerly known by its German name ''Avernach'', however, that name is no longer used.

Bôle

Bôle is first mentioned in 1346 as ''Boule''.

Colombier

Colombier is first mentioned in 1228 as ''Columbier''. Four lakeside settlements from the

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...

and the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

have been discovered in Colombier. One of the largest

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

villas in Switzerland was excavated from under the castle in 1840–42 by Frédéric Dubois de Montperreux. It was built in multiple stages between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD into a palatial mansion with a

peristyle In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=fou ...

, at least two baths with mosaics and frescoes and terraced gardens. A

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

graveyard was found near Colombier. In the 11th or 12th century a fortified tower was built over the ruins of the Roman villa. It expanded in the 13th century and by the 16th century had reached its present appearance. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, the ''

Seigneurie In English law, seignory or seigniory, spelled ''signiory'' in Early Modern English (; french: seigneur, lit=lord; la, senior, lit=elder), is the lordship (authority) remaining to a grantor after the grant of an estate in fee simple. ''Nulle terre ...

'' of Colombier included the villages of Colombier and Areuse, a part of Bôle and a third of the

Vogt During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...

ei of Bevaix. They also had rights in Fretereules and Val-de-Ruz. The noble Colombier family were

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. ...

s of the count of Neuchâtel. During the Middle Ages, they also acquired, by marriage, the

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of f ...

s of Savagnier, Cormondrèche and the fief of the Pressoir of Colombeir in Thielle. In 1488 the Colombier lands were acquired by marriage by the de Chauvirey family of

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, ...

. In 1513, they were acquired by Johann Jakob von Watteville of Bern. Under von Watteville, the territory expanded further into Bevaix. In 1564, the land was purchased by the Counts of Neuchâtel, for 60,000 crowns. Under Johann Jakob von Watteville, the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

was successfully introduced in town. When portions of the

Armée de l'Est The Armée de l'Est (''Army of the East''; German - Ostarmee; also Second Loire Army; nicknamed the 'Bourbaki army' after its first commander General Charles Denis Sauter Bourbaki) was a French army which took part in the Franco-Prussian War of ...

were interred in Colombier in 1871, the Catholic

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

began to be read once again in the church. The boundaries of the village are first documented in 1346. In 1357 it received, along with Bôle and Areuse, a forest which the three municipalities jointly managed until the 18th century. During the 16th and 17th centuries, much of the population was exempted from many of the feudal taxes and fees that they had paid to their feudal overlords. The last feudal tax, however, was finally abolished in the 19th century. In the middle of the 17th century, the town was saved from bankruptcy through a loan given by the bankers Abraham Mouchet and his son. Henri II d'Orléans, the Prince of Neuchatel, freed the municipality from its debts in 1657. In exchange, the municipality pledged to plant trees along the road from the lake to the castle. A chapel is first mentioned in Colombier in 1177. It became a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

before 1228, which included Montézillon in the Middle Ages, Areuse until 1832 and Auvernier until 1879. The right to appoint the priest at St. Stefan's church in Colombier was held by the cathedral chapter of

Lausanne Cathedral The Cathedral of Notre Dame of Lausanne is a church located in the city of Lausanne, in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It belongs to the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Vaud. History Construction of the cathedral began as ...

. A Catholic parish was founded in 1884. In 1734, the first spinning factory in the Lower Areuse was built in Colombier by Jean-Jacques Deluz Bied. By 1739 it had about 80 workers. The factory brought a degree of prosperity and enabled the construction stately country houses in the vicinity of the village (Le Bied, Vaudijon, La Mairesse, Cottendart, Sombacour). In 1806, Colombier Castle was converted into a military hospital. Starting in 1824, it was used by the Federal militias as a parade ground and was converted into a barracks and given an expanded arsenal. In 1877 it became the official barracks of the 2. Division, which later became Field Division 2. In 2003, the Army XXI reforms dissolved the division and in 2004 the barracks became an infantry training center. In the 19th century, Colombier was a regional center, with a gas plant and a bank. The first train station was built in 1859–60. In 1892 it became part of the tram line Neuchâtel-Boudry and in 1927 an airfield was built in the municipality. The regional secondary school was built in the 1969 and teaches students from Colombier, Cortaillod, Boudry, Bôle, Rochefort and Auvernier. It is now a residential community, with few industries. Many of the jobs in town support the barracks.

Geography

The former municipalities that make up Milvignes had an area of . Auvernier had an area, , of . Of this area, or 47.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 3.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 47.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.6% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 The former municipality is located on the north-west bank of

Lake Neuchâtel Lake Neuchâtel (french: Lac de Neuchâtel ; frp, Lèc de Nôchâtél; german: Neuenburgersee) is a lake primarily in Romandy, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. The lake lies mainly in the canton of Neuchâtel, but is also shared by ...

. Bôle had an area, , of . Of this area, or 27.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 45.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 28.3% is settled (buildings or roads). The former municipality is located on the slope above the old

road Vy d'Etraz. It consists of the

linear village Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship ('' function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear ...

of Bôle. Colombier had an area, , of . Of this area, or 39.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 18.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 41.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.4% is unproductive land. The former municipality is located on a small hill above Lake Neuchâtel. The municipality was located in the district of

Boudry Boudry a municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. History Boudry is first mentioned in 1278 as ''Baudri''. There are numerous prehistoric settlements around Boudry. These include the neolithic stilt houses on the banks of La ...

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

Demographics

The total population of Milvignes () is .

Historic population

The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1100 height:500 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:90 right:100 Legend = columns:3 left:220 top:70 columnwidth:160 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:8300 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:800 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:160 start:0 Colors= id:AU value:yellowgreen legend:Auvernier id:BO value:green legend:Bôle id:CO value:blue legend:Colombier PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:30 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from: 0 till:677 text:"677" color:AU bar:1860 from: 0 till:703 text:"703" color:AU bar:1870 from: 0 till:678 text:"678" color:AU bar:1880 from: 0 till:804 text:"804" color:AU bar:1890 from: 0 till:783 text:"783" color:AU bar:1900 from: 0 till:875 text:"875" color:AU bar:1910 from: 0 till:866 text:"866" color:AU bar:1920 from: 0 till:940 text:"940" color:AU bar:1930 from: 0 till:951 text:"951" color:AU bar:1940 from: 0 till:960 text:"960" color:AU bar:1950 from: 0 till:1021 text:"1,021" color:AU bar:1960 from: 0 till:1186 text:"1,186" color:AU bar:1970 from: 0 till:1433 text:"1,433" color:AU bar:1980 from: 0 till:1439 text:"1,439" color:AU bar:1990 from: 0 till:1408 text:"1,408" color:AU bar:2000 from: 0 till:1533 text:"1,533" color:AU bar:1850 from: 677 till:968 text:"291" color:BO bar:1860 from: 703 till:993 text:"290" color:BO bar:1870 from: 678 till:1057 text:"379" color:BO bar:1880 from: 804 till:1169 text:"365" color:BO bar:1890 from: 783 till:1208 text:"425" color:BO bar:1900 from: 875 till:1400 text:"525" color:BO bar:1910 from: 866 till:1365 text:"499" color:BO bar:1920 from: 940 till:1459 text:"519" color:BO bar:1930 from: 951 till:1521 text:"570" color:BO bar:1940 from: 960 till:1477 text:"517" color:BO bar:1950 from: 1021 till:1592 text:"571" color:BO bar:1960 from: 1186 till:1907 text:"721" color:BO bar:1970 from: 1433 till:2855 text:"1,422" color:BO bar:1980 from: 1439 till:2942 text:"1,503" color:BO bar:1990 from: 1408 till:3107 text:"1,699" color:BO bar:2000 from: 1533 till:3311 text:"1,778" color:BO bar:1850 from: 968 till:1864 text:"896" color:CO bar:1860 from: 993 till:2000 text:"1,007" color:CO bar:1870 from: 1057 till:2432 text:"1,375" color:CO bar:1880 from: 1169 till:2772 text:"1,603" color:CO bar:1890 from: 1208 till:3064 text:"1,856" color:CO bar:1900 from: 1400 till:3451 text:"2,051" color:CO bar:1910 from: 1365 till:3442 text:"2,077" color:CO bar:1920 from: 1459 till:3341 text:"1,882" color:CO bar:1930 from: 1521 till:3462 text:"1,941" color:CO bar:1940 from: 1477 till:3396 text:"1,919" color:CO bar:1950 from: 1592 till:3663 text:"2,071" color:CO bar:1960 from: 1907 till:4559 text:"2,652" color:CO bar:1970 from: 2855 till:6950 text:"4,095" color:CO bar:1980 from: 2942 till:7068 text:"4,126" color:CO bar:1990 from: 3107 till:7743 text:"4,636" color:CO bar:2000 from: 3311 till:8208 text:"4,897" color:CO

Transportation

The municipality has three railway stations: , , and . The first two are located on the Jura Foot line while the latter is on the Neuchâtel–Pontarlier line. Between them they have regular service to , , and . Also serving the municipality is the

–Neuchâtel ''Littorail'' tram line.

Heritage sites of national significance

In Auvernier the prehistoric lake shore settlement at Baie D‘Auvernier and Auvernier Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. In Colombier the Arsenal, the prehistoric lake shore settlement at Baie d'Auvernier,

Colombier Castle Colombier Castle is a castle in the former municipality of Colombier (now part of Milvignes) of the Canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. History One of the largest Roman era villas in Switz ...

with its museum, Roman villa and fortifications, the Domaine de Vaudijon, the House de maître du Bied and the Manoir Le Pontet are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. The entire urban village of Colombier, the village of Auvernier and the Areuse region are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

World heritage site

It is home to the La Saunerie and Les Graviers prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements which are part of the

Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps are a series of prehistoric pile dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in and around the Alps built from about 5000 to 500 BC on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. In 2011, 111 sites located various ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

.UNESCO World Heritage Site - Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
/ref> File:Chateau d'Auvernier 20110831 1809 HDR1.jpg, Auvernier Castle File:Auvernier Baie d'Auvernier (stations lacustres préhistoriques)20110831 1777 HDR.jpg, Site of the Baie d'Auvernier prehistoric settlement File:Arsenal de Colombier.jpg, Colombier Castle File:Auvernier Baie d'Auvernier (stations lacustres préhistoriques)20110831 1772 HDR.jpg, The prehistoric lake shore settlement at Baie d‘Auvernier File:Colombier_Castle_Aug_2011.jpg, Colombier Castle File:Colombier Domaine de Vaudijon 20110831 1843 HDR.jpg, Domaine de Vaudijon File:Maitre-du-Bied.jpg, House de maître du Bied File:Manoir le Pontet 2.jpg, Manoir Le Pontet

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Neuchâtel Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Neuchâtel Populated places on Lake Neuchâtel