Neuchâtel (, ; French: [nøʃɑtɛl] ⓘ; German: Neuenburg [ˈnɔʏənbʊrɡ] ⓘ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel. Since the fusion in 2021 of the municipalities of Neuchâtel, Corcelles-Cormondrèche, Peseux, and Valangin, the city has approximately 45,000 inhabitants (86,000 in the metropolitan area). The city is sometimes referred to historically by the German name Neuenburg; both the French and German names mean 'New Castle'.
The castle after which the city is named was built by Rudolph III of Burgundy and completed in 1011. Originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy, the city was absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire in 1033. The domain of the counts of Neuchâtel was first referred to as a city in 1214. The city came under Prussian control from 1707 until 1848, with an interruption during the Napoleonic Wars from 1806 to 1814. In 1848, Neuchâtel became a republic and a canton of Switzerland.
Neuchâtel is a centre of the Swiss watch industry, the site of micro-technology and high-tech industries, and home to research centres and organizations such as the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), and Philip Morris International's Cube.
Names and etymology
Neuchâtel is a medieval toponym derived from the Old French: neu "new" (Modern French neuf) and châtel "castle" (now château) in reference to the 10th century Neuchâtel Castle. In French, most adjectives, when used attributively, appear after their nouns; however, the leading position of the adjective is a phenomenon widely attested in the north and east of France, as well as in Belgium and in French-speaking Switzerland (Romandy). As with the various other places named Neuchâtel, Neufchâtel, Neufchâteau of northern France and Belgium, this reflects the Germanic influence on Gallo-Romance languages retained in the toponymy today. This contrasts with the Occitan Castelnaus (and the Frenchified Châteauneufs) in the south of France.
The German name for the town is Neuenburg, which also translates roughly as "new castle". The longer form Neuenburg am See ("Newcastle by the lake") is sometimes used to disambiguate it from the numerous other Neuenburgs, especially Neuenburg am Rhein. The Romansh language uses the French Neuchâtel, and occasionally Neuschatel and Neufchâtel; contemporary Italian largely uses the French name as well, but occasionally the historic Neocastello is seen.
Regionally, the Romand (Arpitan) name for the town is Nôchâtél in the broad Orthographe de référence B and is pronounced N'tchati [n̩.t͡ʃa.ˈti] locally, N'tchatai [n̩.t͡ʃa.ˈtai] in La Sagne, N'tchaté [n̩.t͡ʃa.ˈte] in Les Planchettes and Nchaté [n̩.ʃa.ˈte] or Ntchaté in Les Éplatures.
Historic names
The Neo-Latin name for Neuchâtel is the Greek-derived Neocomum, and this gives the adjective neocomensis which appears on the seal of the University of Neuchâtel (in Universitas Neocomensis Helvetiorum) and the English adjective Neocomian, a term for a former stratigraphic stage of the Early Cretaceous. Other Latin names seen historically include Novum castellum in 1011 (upon the presentation of Neuchâtel Castle by Rudolph III of Burgundy to his wife Ermengarde) and Novum Castrum in 1143.
Historic French names included Nuefchastel (attested in 1251), Neufchastel (1338), and Neufchatel, with modern Neuchâtel in use by 1750. In the Franche-Comté, the city was also called Neuchâtel-outre-Joux ("Neuchâtel beyond Joux") to distinguish it from another Neuchâtel in that region, now called Neuchâtel-Urtière.
German names of the town included Nienburg, Nuvenburch (attested in 1033) Nüwenburg, Welschen Nüwenburg, Newenburg am See ("Newcastle by the lake") and Welschneuburg, with modern Neuenburg established by 1725.
Italian names included Neocastello (which is occasionally seen in contemporary contexts) and Nuovo Castello.
History
Prehistory
The oldest traces of humans in the municipal area are the remains of a Magdalenian hunting camp, which was dated to 13,000 BC. It was discovered in 1990 during construction of the A5 motorway at Monruz (La Coudre). The site was about 5 m (16 ft) below the main road. Around the fire pits carved flints and bones were found. In addition to the flint and bone artifacts three tiny earrings from lignite were found. The earrings may have served as symbols of fertility and represent the oldest known art in Switzerland. This first camp was used by Cro-Magnons to hunt horse and reindeer in the area. Azilian hunters had a camp at the same site at about 11,000 BC. Since the climate had changed, their prey was now deer and wild boar.
During the 19th century, traces of some stilt houses were found in Le Cret near the red church. However, their location was not well documented and the site was lost. In 1999, during construction of the lower station of the funicular railway, which connects the railway station and university, the settlement was rediscovered. It was later determined to be a Cortaillod culture (middle Neolithic) village. According to dendrochronological studies, some of the piles were from 3571 BC.
A Hallstatt grave (early Iron Age) was found in the forest of Les Cadolles.
Antiquity
At Les Favarger a Gallo-Roman and at André Fontaine a small coin depot were discovered. In 1908, an excavation at the mouth of the Serrière discovered Gallo-Roman baths from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.
Middle Ages
One of the most important Merovingian cemeteries in the canton was discovered at Les Battieux in Serrières. In 1982, 38 graves dating from the 7th century were excavated many of which contained silver-inlaid or silver-plated belt buckles. Also in Serrières at the church of Saint-Jean, the remains of a 7th-century shrine were excavated.
In 1011, Rudolph III of Burgundy presented a Novum castellum or new castle on the lake shore to his wife, Ermengarde. It was long assumed that this new castle replaced an older one, but nothing about its location or design is known. At the time of this gift Neuchâtel was probably the center of a newly created royal court, which was recently developed to complement the other royal estates which managed western estates of the kings of Burgundy.
The first counts of Neuchâtel were named shortly afterwards, and in 1214 their domain was officially dubbed a city.
Early modern era
For three centuries, the County of Neuchâtel flourished, and in 1530, the people of Neuchâtel accepted the Reformation, and their city and territory were proclaimed to be indivisible from then on. Future rulers were required to seek investiture from the citizens.
With increasing power and prestige, Neuchâtel was raised to the level of a principality at the beginning of the 17th century. On the death in 1707 of Marie d'Orléans-Longueville, duchess de Nemours and Princess of Neuchâtel, the people had to choose her successor from among fifteen claimants. They wanted their new prince first and foremost to be a Protestant, and also to be strong enough to protect their territory but based far enough away to leave them to their own devices. Louis XIV actively promoted the many French pretenders to the title, but the Neuchâtelois people passed them over in favour of King Frederick I of Prussia, who claimed his entitlement in a rather complicated fashion through the Houses of Orange and Nassau. With the requisite stability assured, Neuchâtel entered its golden age, with commerce and industry (including watchmaking and lace) and banking undergoing steady expansion.
Modern Neuchâtel
At the beginning of the 19th century, Prussia sought to obtain Hanover whilst still maintaining neutrality and abstaining from the wars waged by Napoleon. Frederick William III had hoped that Prussia could receive the Electorate of Hanover from France only after the event of a British defeat and a resulting treaty, lest Prussia be forced to enter war alongside France against Britain over the territory, with which Britain had been in personal union since 1714. To achieve these aims of receiving Hanover with a simultaneous preservation of neutrality, Prussia offered to give up certain exclaves to the French, however, Napoleon exploited Prussia's politically isolated position and forced Prussia to give up more than had been hoped, partake in the Continental Blockade, and to officially annex Hanover in the Treaty of Paris on 15 February 1806, resulting in the cession of the principality of Neuchâtel to Napoleon. Napoleon's field marshal, Berthier, became Prince of Neuchâtel, building roads and restoring infrastructure, but never actually setting foot in his domain. After the fall of Napoleon, Frederick William III of Prussia reasserted his rights by proposing that Neuchâtel be linked with the other Swiss cantons (to exert better influence over all of them). On 12 September 1814, Neuchâtel became the capital of the 21st canton, but also remained a Prussian principality. It took a bloodless revolution in the decades following for Neuchâtel to shake off its princely past and declare itself, on 1 March 1848, a republic within the Swiss Confederation. Prussia yielded its claim to the canton following the 1856–1857 Neuchâtel Crisis.
On 1 January 2021 the former municipalities of Corcelles-Cormondrèche, Peseux and Valangin merged into the municipality of Neuchâtel. Corcelles-Cormondrèche was first mentioned in the historical record in 1092 as Curcellis. Around 1220 it was mentioned as Cormundreschi. Peseux was first mentioned in 1195 as apud Pusoz though this comes from a 15th-century copy of an earlier document. In 1278 it was mentioned as de Posoys. Valangin was first mentioned in 1241 as de Valengiz.
Geography
Before the 2021 merger of municipalities, Neuchâtel had an area, as of 2009, of 18.1 square kilometers (7.0 mi2). Of this area, 1.84 km2 (0.71 mi2) or 10.2% was used for agricultural purposes, while 9.74 km2 (3.76 mi2) or 53.8% was forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.42 km2 (2.48 mi2) or 35.5% was settled (buildings or roads), 0.03 km2 (7.4 acres) or 0.2% was either rivers or lakes and 0.02 km2 (4.9 acres) or 0.1% was unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 18.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 10.1%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.3%. Out of the forested land, 51.8% of the total land area was heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.4% was used for growing crops and 8.0% was pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.
The city is located on the northwestern shore of Lake Neuchâtel, a few kilometers east of Peseux and west of Saint-Blaise. Above Neuchâtel, roads and train tracks rise steeply into the folds and ridges of the Jura range—known within the canton as the Montagnes neuchâteloises. Like the continuation of the mountains on either side, this is wild and hilly country, not exactly mountainous compared with the high Alps further south but still characterized by remote, windswept settlements and deep, rugged valleys. It is also the heartland of the celebrated Swiss watchmaking industry, centered on the once-famous towns of La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle, which both rely heavily on their horological past to draw in visitors. The river Doubs marks for a part the border with France, set down in a gorge and forming along its path a waterfall, the Saut du Doubs, and lake, the Lac des Brenets.
The municipality was the capital of Neuchâtel District, until the district level of administration was eliminated on 1 January 2018.
Politics
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or, an Eagle displayed Sable beaked, langued and membered Gules, escutcheon Or, on a pale Gules three Chevrons Argent.