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La Chaux-de-Fonds
Page 2
Continued from page 1
ABOVE: The atrium of l'Ancien Manège,
a riding school that was converted to housing for workers' families in the
1860s. INSET BELOW: Le Corbusier's
Turkish Villa and
the Théâtre l'Heure Bleu.
 History and architecture
In medieval times, La Chaux-de-Fonds was a bucolic agricultural
village in the Jura Mountains near the Swiss-French border. A publication of
Tourisme Neuchâtel, the cantonal tourist office, explains what happened next:
"The Jura valleys' involvement in clockwork
originated in the city of Geneva. Little did puritanical Calvin realize when
he banned the wearing of jewelry there in the 16th Century that he would
bring life to a craft that would become one of the most prestigious
industries in the world! To ensure their livelihood, jewelers devoted
themselves to clock- and watchmaking. This new handicraft very quickly
spread throughout the Jura region, where local watchmaker-farmers developed
unprecedented skills in the field of precision work....Today more than
30,000 persons are employed by the watch industry."
La Chaux-de-Fonds attracted Huguenot and Jewish watchmakers
partly due to its relatively high elevation of 997 meters or 3,271 feet. Because
the local growing season was short, farmers in La Chaux-de-Fonds and nearby
towns were available for industrial work during much of the year. By the time
Swiss watchmaking reached its peak in the late 19th Century, hundreds of small
and large firms employed seasonal and full-time workers throughout the region.
A modern town plan
After a fire destroyed two-thirds of Le Chaux-de-Fonds in 1794,
the town's leaders decided on a new plan that was inspired by egalitarian
principles from the French Revolution: The rebuilt town was based on New York's
Manhattan, with long, wide streets that ran along the floor and parallel
hillsides of the valley. This design guaranteed light and fresh air even in
working-class apartment buildings, and it also minimized fire risk.
Italian opera and Jugendstil
 Between
1794 and 1900, the population of La Chaux-de-Fonds increased from around 4,500
to more than 35,000, and the city center was filled with Art Nouveau dwellings,
an Italian-style theatre, watch factories, public buildings, churches, and one
of Switzerland's largest synagogues. (INSA, the Inventaire Suisse
d'Architecture, lists several hundred buildings from the period between 1850 and
1920 alone.)
The earliest works of Le Corbusier
In 1900, Charles-Edward Jeanneret-Gris--the architect
subsequently known as Le Corbusier--began an apprenticeship in engraving and
carving at the Ecole d'art. After collaborating on several houses with the
architect René Chapallaz, he opened his own firm
and designed La Maison Blanche ("The White House" for his parents in 1912. In
1917, he built La Villa Turque ("The Turkish Villa") before moving to Paris.
Thanks to this
remarkable architectural heritage, La Chaux-de-Fonds has been chosen as one of
the eight most important cities on the Art & Architecture Theme Route of
Switzerland Tourism. If you're a
city planner, an architect, or an aficionado of urban design, spend at least one
full day (or, better yet, two) in La-Chaux-de-Fonds during your next visit to
Switzerland.
Next page:
Tourist information and
sightseeing
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