Préverenges

Canton of Vaud · District: Morges · 5'215 inhabitants as of 31 December 2023, the last verified official figure; the population has continued to grow since the 1950s and is likely above this figure today, though no more recent figure could be reliably confirmed

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

Origin of the name Préverenges

The village's name is thought to come from the Burgundian personal name Berwer or Perwer, that of the landowner at the time of the Burgundian settlement of the region, around the 5th century. The suffix "-enges", found in many place names in this part of French-speaking Switzerland, corresponds to the Germanic "-ing" and means roughly "at the people of" or "at the descendants of". Préverenges would therefore literally designate the place where Berwer's people lived. On the date of the very first written mention of the name, the sources consulted do not fully agree, and it is better to note this than to decide arbitrarily. Some place it in 1155, through a bull of Pope Adrian IV confirming the possessions of the Cistercian abbey of Molesme, in Bourgogne, among which the church of Préverenges. Others cite instead the Latinized form Preverengia in 1177, then Preverenges in 1224 or 1228 depending on the source. These discrepancies are probably due to different documents (the papal bull on one hand, later deeds on the other), but since it was not possible to consult all these archival records, both benchmarks are given here rather than just one. The inhabitants are called les Préverengeois and les Préverengeoises. The village also long carried, in the local patois, the nickname "Defrayguenies", which can be roughly translated as "the ragged ones": a nickname said to date back to a time when people from this part of the Lausanne region were considered poor, though no more precise origin of this saying is known.

Founding of Préverenges

There is no single founding act for Préverenges by one person or institution: the site was inhabited well before any seigneurial or ecclesiastical power settled there, as shown by the lakeside remains found off the village (see below). The Préverenges that can be documented through archives takes shape gradually in the early Middle Ages, as an extension of the Burgundian settlement and then of the establishment of the seigneurial and religious network that then structured the whole shore of Lac Léman. In the 12th century, Turumbert de Baiz and his wife Constance, a lesser-noble couple settled on the lakeshore, donated their lands between the Bief and the Chamberonne, including those of Préverenges, to the Cistercian abbey of Molesme. It is this donation, confirmed shortly afterwards by the papal bull mentioned above, that brings the village into written records. On the religious side, the Middle Ages also see Préverenges attached to the priory of Saint-Sulpice, while temporal lordship falls to the lords of Colombier and then to the chapter of Lausanne Cathedral. This lordship was sold in 1701 to Berne, which had already administered the whole Pays de Vaud since its conquest in 1536; from this sale onward, Préverenges depended directly on the bailiwick of Morges. Like many villages along the shore of Lac Léman between Lausanne and Morges, Préverenges was therefore born less from a single founding act than from the layering, over several centuries, of land, religious and then state rights over a site that had been occupied long before these institutions arrived.

History of Préverenges

3400-2400 BC. A site is occupied on the lakeshore, at the location today called Préverenges II, west of the present-day village. It is dated to the Final Neolithic based on the lithic material found on the lake bed.

1800-1550 BC. A lakeside village is established a little further east, at the site today called Préverenges I. Dendrochronological analysis of several hundred piles extracted there distinguishes two successive habitation phases: the first with about fifteen houses aligned perpendicular to the shore, the second, later and smaller, with only five huts.

2nd century. Gallo-Roman objects, as well as later medieval artefacts, are found mixed with the remains of the lakeside village, a sign that the shore was used well after the prehistoric site was abandoned.

12th century. Turumbert de Baiz and his wife Constance donate their lands, including those of Préverenges, to the Cistercian abbey of Molesme.

1155. A bull of Pope Adrian IV, confirming the possessions of the abbey of Molesme, mentions the church of Préverenges. This is, according to some sources, the very first written document citing the village; other sources place this first mention rather in 1177 (in the form Preverengia) or in the 1220s (in the form Preverenges), see the section on the origin of the name.

1238. The bishop of Lausanne, Guillaume d'Écublens, and Aymon II of Faucigny sign a treaty at Préverenges settling the buyout of the Lausanne episcopal advocacy.

1420-1528. The village is struck several times by plague epidemics.

1475. Troops from Berne, at war with Savoie, plunder the region during their advance on the Pays de Vaud.

1481-1914. A tile works operates at Préverenges for more than four centuries.

1536. The conquest of the Pays de Vaud by Berne places Préverenges under the administration of Berne; the Protestant Reformation is imposed there shortly afterwards.

1537. The now-Protestant parish is attached to that of Morges.

1540. Préverenges is separated from Morges to form a new parish with Bremblens, Denges, Échandens and Lonay.

1701. The lordship of Préverenges is sold to Berne, which from then on administers it directly from the bailiwick of Morges.

1791-1792. The church is rebuilt in a Baroque style, under the direction of the mason Pierre-François Recordon; a communal annex is incorporated into it.

1798-1803. Like the rest of the Pays de Vaud, Préverenges passes through the short-lived canton of Léman of the Helvetic Republic before joining, in 1803, the new canton of Vaud and its district of Morges.

1807. Louis-Henri Delarageaz is born in Préverenges, in what would later become the inn À l'Enseigne de l'Étoile d'Or; he would go on to become a councillor of state and a prominent figure of the 1845 Vaud revolution.

1828. A new road linking Préverenges to Lonay is completed, with a bridge over the stream separating the two localities.

1841. A small turret in molasse sandstone is added to the church.

1855. The railway line between Renens and Morges, built by the Compagnie de l'Ouest-Suisse, passes by the village; a stop, the Lonay-Préverenges station, serves the locality from the neighbouring territory of Lonay.

1887. About sixty poplar trees are planted along the beach.

1890. The Compagnie des chemins de fer Jura-Simplon, which takes over operation of the line, asks the municipalities of Lonay and Préverenges for a financial contribution towards building a shelter at the station.

1917-1918. The municipality buys back the former inn À l'Enseigne de l'Étoile d'Or to house its municipal council, which meets there from the following year.

1919. The former town hall, which housed a communal oven, is converted into a bakery.

1930-1963. The church undergoes several rounds of work: restoration in 1930, simplification of the facade in 1958, installation of new stained-glass windows in 1960, further restoration in 1963.

1956. The parish of Préverenges is attached to that of Morges.

1950-1980. The village experiences strong growth and becomes covered with new residential neighbourhoods (Taudaz, Pierraz-Mur, Mouettes, Planches, Trési), taking its population from a few hundred to several thousand inhabitants within a generation.

1969. An autonomous Reformed parish is re-established at Préverenges.

1971. A Catholic community also organizes itself in the village.

1991. The Maison Muret, a large manor house built in the late 18th century, becomes the seat of the municipal administration.

2001-2002. Construction of the Île aux Oiseaux, an artificial rockfill and islet off the mouth of the Venoge, intended to host migratory birds. The project, led by the Cercle ornithologique de Lausanne, had first been envisaged in 1984 and was officially approved by the Federal Office for the Environment in 1997.

2011. The Préverenges I lakeside site, together with several dozen other Swiss pile-dwelling sites, is inscribed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List, as part of the serial property "Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps".

2015. A nesting platform is added to the Île aux Oiseaux; it will help make it the most important colony of common terns and black-headed gulls in the Lac Léman basin.

2020-2022. The Île aux Oiseaux nature reserve is redeveloped, and an educational centre, the Maison de l'Île aux Oiseaux, is opened there in March 2022.

2026. In the municipal elections of 8 March, Virgile Perret is elected syndic (mayor). Préverenges remains, to this day, a municipality independent from the district of Morges; no merger project has been identified for this municipality, unlike several other Vaud municipalities at the foot of the Jura.

Population of Préverenges

121

1764

229

1850

243

1860

254

1900

486

1950

616

1960

1'837

1970

4'078

2000

5'242

2020

5'204

2022

5'215

2023

Historic sites in Préverenges

The church (former Saint-Pierre church). The village's religious building has its origin in the Middle Ages, at the time when the church of Préverenges is mentioned in the oldest ecclesiastical documents of the place. It was entirely remodelled in 1791-1792 in a style that follows, with an axial-turret church, a gable with scrolled ends and symmetrical openings, the conventions of religious architecture then in fashion in the Pays de Vaud. The current turret, in molasse sandstone, dates from 1841. The building then underwent several restoration campaigns in the 20th century, in 1930 and then 1963, with a simplification of its facade in 1958 and the installation of new stained-glass windows in 1960.

The Maison Muret. A large manor house built in molasse sandstone at the end of the 18th century, it has housed the seat of Préverenges's municipal administration since 1991.

The inn À l'Enseigne de l'Étoile d'Or. Built in 1797, this former inn is the birthplace, in 1807, of Louis-Henri Delarageaz, a prominent figure of 19th-century Vaud political life. Bought back by the municipality in 1917, it has housed the municipal council since 1918.

The former town hall and communal oven, now the Deriaz bakery. This building used to serve as the town hall and housed a communal oven, used collectively by the village's inhabitants. It was converted into a bakery in 1919.

The beach and the harbour. The developed shore of Préverenges, planted with about sixty poplar trees from 1887, became over the course of the 20th century one of the most popular lakeside swimming and leisure spots in the Morges area, as the village shifted from a rural market town to a residential and lakeside resort municipality.

The Île aux Oiseaux. This artificial islet and rockfill, built in 2001-2002 off the mouth of the Venoge, form a nature reserve protected by the canton of Vaud, managed by the Cercle ornithologique de Lausanne and closed to the public. The site hosts thousands of migratory birds each year, notably waders, as well as a large breeding colony of common terns and black-headed gulls since the addition of a nesting platform in 2015. An educational centre, the Maison de l'Île aux Oiseaux, was opened there in March 2022.

Remains in Préverenges

Préverenges I, Early Bronze Age lakeside village. Located in 1975 and then surveyed in December 1977, this submerged lakeside site off the village has been the subject of thorough excavations carried out by underwater archaeology teams. Dendrochronological analysis of several hundred piles extracted from the lake bed dates the site to the Early Bronze Age, around 1800-1550 BC, distinguishing two occupation phases: a first with about fifteen dwellings 10 to 15 metres long, oriented perpendicular to the shore, then a later and more modest phase with only five huts. Pottery, tools and various objects were found there, mixed with a few later elements (Gallo-Roman, medieval) attesting to later use of the shore. This is the site, and it alone among the Préverenges remains, that was inscribed in 2011 on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps.

Préverenges II, Final Neolithic site. Located about 430 metres west of Préverenges I, this second site is dated to the Final Neolithic, between roughly 3400 and 2400 BC, based on lithic material found on the surface of the lake bed. Its extent, delimited by the spread of the piles found, is markedly larger than that of Préverenges I. Unlike the latter, this Neolithic site is not itself inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, although it is documented as an associated site in the cantonal inventory of Vaud lakeside stations.

Sources

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