Grandson, Switzerland
| Grandson | ||
|---|---|---|
Grandson castle
|
||
|
||
 Grandson
|
||
|
Location of Grandson
 |
||
| Coordinates: 46°49′N 06°39′E / 46.817°N 6.650°ECoordinates: 46°49′N 06°39′E / 46.817°N 6.650°E | ||
| Country | Switzerland | |
| Canton | Vaud | |
| District | Jura-Nord Vaudois | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor | Syndic | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 7.86 km2 (3.03 sq mi) | |
| Elevation | 447 m (1,467 ft) | |
| Population (Dec 2015) | ||
| • Total | 3,306 | |
| • Density | 420/km2 (1,100/sq mi) | |
| Demonym(s) | Les Gransonnois Les Bocans |
|
| Postal code | 1422 | |
| SFOS number | 5561 | |
| Localities | Corcelettes, Les Tuileries-de-Grandson, Péroset, La Poissine, Bru, La Perraudettaz | |
| Surrounded by | Champagne, Bonvillars, Montagny-près-Yverdon, Valeyres-sous-Montagny, Giez, Fiez | |
| Website |
www Profile (French), SFSO statistics |
|
Grandson (French: [ɡʀɑ̃sɔ̃]) is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.
During the Burgundian Wars, Charles the Bold was defeated near here in the Battle of Grandson on 2 March 1476.
The Grandson family is first mentioned in the second half of the 11th Century as Grancione. The town was first mentioned around 1100 as de castro Grancione. Around 1126 it was mentioned as castri Grandissoni and in 1154 it was called apud Grantionem.
In May 1895 a farmer discovered a buried underground menhir weighing about three tons and about 3.4 m (11 ft) tall in Les Echâtelards. The monolith now stands in the vicinity of the discovery site. Grandson, however, is better known for its prehistoric lakeside settlements. The site at Corcelettes became well known after 1854, when Frederic Louis Troyon introduced the author Ferdinand Keller to the Corcelettes site in which numerous piles for stilt houses—as well as vases—were found. By 1930, seven lake front settlements were identified. They included: in Corcelettes a large Bronze Age site and a smaller one from the Neolithic period, in Les Buttes two more from the Neolithic period, and in Le Repuis, Le Stand and Les Tuileries three others that were probably from the Neolithic period. At the last three sites, no artifacts were discovered that could be used to definitively date them. In 1995 at the Bellerive campsite, a Late Neolithic settlement dating from 2741-2488 BC was discovered.
The most important stilt house settlement is at Corcelettes. The first Jura water correction of 1876 led to the drainage of a large part of the marshy field where the prehistoric village had been. The Federal Archaeology and History Museum in Lausanne seized the opportunity and started excavations in the following year which dragged on until 1880. Corcelettes is probably the one Swiss village that supplied the most metal objects from the Bronze Age to different museums and private collections around the world. In 1881, the stilt field was 300 by 100 to 200 metres (980 by 330 to 660 ft) in size. In 1900 it was declared a Swiss heritage site of national significance. While it legally protected from looting, several thousand square meters of archaeologically important material has been lost due to erosion. Nevertheless, Corcelettes is one of the best preserved and largest lakeside settlements on Lake Neuchâtel.
...
Wikipedia