Chexbres

Chexbres is a municipality in the district of Lavaux -Oron in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

Geography

Chexbres is on 565 m above sea level. M., 12 km east-southeast of the canton capital Lausanne ( straight line ). The village is located on a terrace east of the creek forestay, in Lavaux: a scenic location approximately 200 m above the lake level of Lake Geneva.

The area of ​​2.1 km ² large municipality area includes a portion of the Lavaux. The community itself has no direct lake access, but extends east of the Château de Rivaz Glérolles almost to the shores of Lake Geneva down. The communal land extends from the vine-clad escarpment northward on the terrace of Chexbres to the northeast adjacent to the lake heights ( west of the Mont Pelerin ) on which at Cret Berard 715 m above sea level. M. the highest point of Chexbres is achieved. To the west, the area extends over the little valley of the forestay on the hill of Le Signal (up to 640 m above sea level. M. ). From the municipality surface 1997 32 % came from settlements, 14% forest and woody plants and 54% to agriculture.

To Chexbres include the hamlet of Le Monteiller ( 455 m above sea level. M. ) on the hillside below the village amidst the vineyards as well as several individual farms on the heights. Neighboring communities of Chexbres are Rivaz, Puidoux and Saint- Saphorin ( Lavaux).

Population

With 2106 inhabitants ( 31 December 2012) Chexbres belongs to the medium-sized municipalities in the canton of Vaud. Of the 86.5 % inhabitants are French-speaking, German-speaking 5.3 % and 1.8 % portugiesischsprachig (as of 2000). The population of Chexbres amounted in 1850 to 770 inhabitants, 1900 to 1125 inhabitants. After a temporary decline in population until 1920 (960 inhabitants) since then a continuous increase in the population was recorded.

Economy

Chexbres was up to the beginning of the 20th century mainly by agriculture embossed village. Even today, the wine at the optimal sunlit slopes of the Lavaux ( about 25 ha ) and crop and livestock farming on the plateaus a certain role in the occupational structure of the population. More jobs are available in the local small businesses and especially in the service sector. The trade of Chexbres is aligned next to the fast moving consumer goods mainly on tourism. There are also several wine shops. Produced in Chexbres wine carries the appellation Saint- Saphorin. Chexbres features a heated swimming pool. Through the construction of numerous single-family homes in the past few decades, the village has developed into a residential community. Many workers are therefore commuters who work mainly in Lausanne and in the Vevey-Montreux region.

Traffic

The community is conveniently reach and accessible. It lies on the main road from Vevey to Moudon. The motorway connection Chexbres on the A9 opened in 1974 (Lausanne -Sion ), which crosses the municipality, approximately 1 km from the center.

On May 2, 1904, the railway line from Vevey to Puidoux was taken with a station in Chexbres in operation. Today wrong on this stretch of the Train des Vignes. Only a little outside of the municipality closest train station Puidoux- Chexbres on the main line from Lausanne to Bern ( on September 4, 1862 inaugurated ). For the dispersion in public transport is a bus line that serves the route of Cully via Chexbres to Puidoux- Chexbres station provides.

History

The territory of Chexbres was already inhabited in Roman times, as could be shown by single wall remains and coins found. The first written mention of the village was carried out in 1079 under the name Carbarissa. In the following time published a number of other names: Chibriacum ( 1100 ), Chabris ( 1134 ), Chabre ( 1142 ), Cabarissa ( 1145 ), Cerbre ( 1147 ), Chebra ( 1165 ), Chabrii ( 1179 ), Chabres ( 1221 ), Chaibri ( 1248 ), Chaibry (1368 ), Chebry ( 1453), Cheibri (1454 ) and until 1562 both Chaybres and Cheybres. The origin of the place name is not clear. He could be derived from the Roman personal name Cabrius, the Gallic Caebre ( place on a hill ) or of Cabus ( hemp).

The area around Chexbres belonged since the 6th century the Abbey of Saint- Maurice and 978 came to the Kingdom of Burgundy. In 1079 King Henry IV gave the village and its environs to the Bishop of Lausanne. The interests of the bishop were represented by the Kastlan of Saint- Saphorin.

With the conquest of Vaud by Bern in 1536 Chexbres came under the administration of the Bailiwick of Lausanne. After the collapse of the ancien régime, the village belonged from 1798 to 1803 during the Helvetic Republic to the canton of Geneva, who came up then with the enactment of the Act of Mediation in the canton of Vaud. 1798 was assigned to the district of Lavaux. Until 1810 Chexbres was part of the parish of Saint- Saphorin and was only after a politically independent community. Thanks to its beautiful location, the village developed in the 19th century into a resort.

Attractions

The Church of Chexbres in 1888 built on the site of an earlier chapel. It has a neo-Gothic tower, remarkable stained glass windows of Jean Prahin (1988 ) and an organ in the French Romantic style of 1905. Crousaz De Castle was built in the 15th century. However, the present building dates from a reconstruction after a fire shortly after in 1600. From the 18th century, the Maison Wyttenbach comes. In the old town some characteristic agricultural and wine farmhouses dating from the 17th to 19th centuries have been preserved.

Personalities

• The Swedish art patron and collector Theodor Ahren Berg (1912-1989) settled with his family in 1962 in the villa "Le Rocher " in Chexbres, where he continued his activities as a collector. With numerous renewable young artists who later formed the Modernism he used contacts and invited them to several months of work stays in his villa one. In this way, over the next 25 years was a comprehensive collection, the Collection Ahrenberg.
• Gained fame Chexbres by numerous landscapes by the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler, who always have the south-facing slopes of the Lavaux and the dominant Lake Geneva to the subject. The best known of these images, " The Lake Geneva from Chexbres ", which in 1911 created is currently in possession of the glorious Christie's auction house in London.