Mézery-près-Donneloye

Canton of Vaud · District: Jura-Nord vaudois · Mézery-près-Donneloye had about 75 inhabitants at the time of its merger into the municipality of Donneloye in 2008, after reaching a maximum of 111 inhabitants in 1900.

Part of the municipality of Donneloye

Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Population over time Must-see historical sites Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Mézery-près-Donneloye

Mézery-près-Donneloye first appears in a document in 1186 in the Latinized form «Macerys», according to the Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse. Later forms of the name also appear in local documents: «Maiserie» around 1224, «Maysiriez» in the 12th century and «Maisery» in the 14th century; these datings come from different sources and would deserve further cross-checking. From a toponymic point of view, the names in this family (Mézières, Mézery, Mazières, etc.) generally derive from the Latin «maceria», which originally designated a dry-stone wall and later, more broadly, an enclosure wall; according to specialists in the field, the meaning retained for this type of place name varies between «enclosure wall», «house» or «ruins», with no single interpretation reaching consensus for this village in particular. The addition «près-Donneloye» was added later to distinguish this village from other Vaud places bearing a related name, such as Jouxtens-Mézery.

Founding of Mézery-près-Donneloye

No source documents a single founding act or a precise founder for Mézery-près-Donneloye. The place appears in medieval texts as a small independent seigneury, distinct from that of Donneloye, belonging from the 14th century onward to regional noble families. It is therefore not a creation planned by a founding lord or a religious order, but rather the gradual assertion, during the Middle Ages, of a small rural seigneurial territory around a pre-existing agricultural settlement.

History of Mézery-près-Donneloye

14th century. The seigneury of Mézery belongs to Othonin de Fernex, known as «de Mézery».

1186. First known written mention of the place, in the Latinized form «Macerys».

1403. The seigneury passes to Isabelle de Châtonnay, wife of Bernard Mayor, a notable of Lutry.

15th-16th century. The Mayor family retains the seigneury of Mézery before it is divided among several co-lords.

16th-17th century. Through successive marriage alliances, shares of the seigneury pass to the Massey, Mestral and Rolaz families.

1536-1798. Mézery administratively belongs to the Bernese bailiwick of Yverdon.

1652. Jean-Philippe de Loys buys up the various co-seigneuries of Mézery, uniting the territory under a single family.

1711. The de Loys family cedes the territory of Mézery to Berne, which incorporates it into the neighbouring seigneury of Donneloye.

1798-2006. After the fall of the Ancien Régime, Mézery is incorporated into the district of Yverdon.

1928. The municipality of Mézery-près-Donneloye adopts its own coat of arms (azure a cross or, in canton a wing of the same).

1989. Gradual abandonment of the private water sources belonging to each household, in favour of a public distribution network.

2000. Renovation of the village school.

2007. Inauguration of public lighting in the village.

1 January 2008. Mézery-près-Donneloye merges with the municipalities of Donneloye and Gossens to form the new municipality of Donneloye, in the present-day district of Jura-Nord vaudois.

Population of Mézery-près-Donneloye

1764

1803

1850

111

1900

1950

1970

2000

2003

Historic sites in Mézery-près-Donneloye

The Bernese granary. Former granary in the Bernese style, a testimony to local agricultural architecture, recently carefully restored. It is one of the village's few well-preserved old buildings.

The farming village of Mézery. Small rural hamlet long marked by its agricultural activity, dominated by cereal growing; around the turn of the 2000s, a few farms were still active on the village's territory.

Sources

Other villages near Mézery-près-Donneloye

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