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Villages / Neuchâtel / Saint-Aubin-Sauges

Saint-Aubin-Sauges

Canton of Neuchâtel · Region: Littoral · 2'399 inhabitants (2017, former municipality of Saint-Aubin-Sauges)
Part of the municipality of La Grande Béroche
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Population over time Must-see historical sites Remains Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Saint-Aubin-Sauges

Saint-Aubin-Sauges bears the names of two villages united into a single municipality in 1888. Saint-Aubin appears in 1176 in the Latin form « Sancti Albini », after the patron saint of its church, Saint Albinus (saint Aubin). Sauges is attested in 1340 as « villa de Sauges » (to be cross-checked); the origin of this name is not explained by the sources consulted. The region is called the Béroche, a name said to come from Latin parochia, parish (to be cross-checked).

Founding of Saint-Aubin-Sauges

The site was inhabited long before the name appears. Six Neolithic sites, from the Cortaillod to the Auvernier Corded Ware phases, have been recorded along the shore (Fin de Praz, Le Rafour, Port-Conty and Tivoli 1-3); Port-Conty has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2011. The Devens forest holds a few menhirs, and a megalithic complex is reported at Derrière la Croix (to be cross-checked). Hallstatt and La Tène tumuli and traces of Roman dwellings have also been uncovered. The village grew up around the church dedicated to Saint Albinus, given in 1176 by the bishop of Lausanne to the abbot of Saint-Maurice; a sanctuary is said to have existed as early as 1083 (to be cross-checked). The parish, recorded from 1228, covers the whole Béroche and adopts the Reformation in 1531. Saint-Aubin belonged to the allodial estate of Gorgier, which passed to the lords of Estavayer in the 13th century; in 1344 the house of Neuchâtel acquired the lordship of Gorgier, whose court sat at Saint-Aubin. Saint-Aubin and Sauges remained two separate communes until their union in 1888.

History of Saint-Aubin-Sauges

5th millennium BC. First reported traces of settlement in the area: the megalithic complex of Derrière la Croix (menhir alignments) with a water-related cult chamber and a rare Danubian-type hammer-axe (to be cross-checked).

around 3500 to 2450 BC. The lakeside village of Port-Conty is occupied successively by the Cortaillod, Horgen (wood dated by dendrochronology to 3160-3159 and 3064-3062 BC) and then Auvernier-Cordé cultures.

1083. A sanctuary is said to have been founded by Bishop Burkard of Basel (to be cross-checked).

1176. The bishop of Lausanne gives the church of Saint-Aubin, dedicated to Saint Albinus, to the abbot of Saint-Maurice; the place appears in the form « Sancti Albini ».

1228. First mention of the parish of Saint-Aubin, which brings together the villages of the Béroche.

1340. First mention of Sauges, in the form « villa de Sauges » (to be cross-checked).

1344. The house of Neuchâtel acquires the lordship of Gorgier, whose court sits at Saint-Aubin.

1378. First record of the timber industry at Saint-Aubin.

1416. Construction of the bell tower of the church of Saint-Aubin.

1433. The lordship of Gorgier, to which Saint-Aubin belongs, passes to the illegitimate branch of the house of Neuchâtel (Jean de Neuchâtel-Vaumarcus); a price of 11'000 florins is given (to be cross-checked).

1531. The parish adopts the Reformation; the church becomes a Reformed temple.

1566. The abbot of Saint-Maurice sells the church of Saint-Aubin to the five communities of the Béroche.

around 1637. Reconstruction of the nave of the church, with a wooden ceiling and a late Gothic apse.

1660. A dysentery epidemic kills 23 people in the village (to be cross-checked).

1812. Vaumarcus and Vernéaz join the parish of Saint-Aubin.

1838-1867. Asphalt is mined, producing mastic and bitumen-coated pipes. In the 19th century textile crafts and lace-making are practised, while watchmaking develops.

1845-1846. The largest of the Devens menhirs, which was hindering the use of a field, is buried by farmers, then re-erected the following year by the archaeologist Frédéric Dubois de Montperreux on the orders of the government of Neuchâtel, after the discovery of human bones and ceramic fragments during the digging.

1853-1854. An exceptional drought partly exposes the Port-Conty lakeside site, first reported in 1860 by Frédéric Troyon, who attributes it to the Bronze Age. In the 1860s Dr Gustave Clément, living in Saint-Aubin, explores it intensively for his private collection, later sold to the United States; Colonel Friedrich Schwab carries out a small excavation there in 1863-1864.

1873. Founding of the Devens detention house, which in 1919 becomes a Salvation Army foundation for alcoholics.

1874. The municipality (municipalité) is established.

1888 (2 July). The municipalities of Saint-Aubin and Sauges merge to form the single municipality of Saint-Aubin-Sauges.

1899-1903. Part of the watchmaking industry turns to precision engineering and tooling; the engine factories Zürcher (later Bregnard SA), Allisson and Moser are founded. Fritz Moser produces motorcycles and vehicles of the STAS brand there (to be cross-checked).

1901-1902. Construction of the Villa Le Rafour for Louis Pernod, former director of the distillery of the same name; the neoclassical building has housed the municipal administration since 1984-1985 (to be cross-checked).

1903. Renovation of the church and installation of a Kuhn organ with tubular pneumatic action.

1904. The church receives three Art Nouveau stained-glass windows made by Clément Heaton, regarded as an exceptional ensemble for stained glass in French-speaking Switzerland.

1905. Founding of the regional hospital of the Béroche, in a Heimatstil building.

1921-1938. Excavations led by Paul Vouga for the Neuchâtel Commission for Prehistoric Archaeology establish the extent of the Port-Conty site, estimated at 2'000 m², and its stratigraphy; thousands of objects (pottery, greenstone, flint, antler, animal remains, textiles) are recovered and are now kept at the Laténium.

1948. Founding of the Catholic parish of La Béroche-Bevaix.

1970s. Renewed study of the finds from the lower layer at Port-Conty makes it possible to define a new cultural facies of the Cortaillod, called « Port-Conty » (3500-3300 BC).

1980-2005. Saint-Aubin-Sauges is the economic centre of the Béroche: in 1980, 61% of the working population is employed in industry, and in 2005 the secondary sector still provides 34% of jobs.

1991 (17 June). The restaurant of the Relais du Pattus, a former coaching inn established around 1600 on the road from Yverdon to Neuchâtel, is destroyed by fire (to be cross-checked).

1997-2000. Construction of the A5 motorway tunnel (1'993 metres).

2011. The prehistoric site of Port-Conty is listed, together with other Swiss pile-dwelling sites, on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

2012. The church organ is damaged by a fire.

2015 (27 June). The organ, restored by the Saint-Martin workshop, is inaugurated, with all the original pipes having been preserved.

2016. The Béroche hospital, turned into a regional health unit in 2000 (closure of the maternity ward) and one of the sites of Hôpital neuchâtelois from 2006, ceases operating.

2016 (November). The population of Bevaix, Fresens, Gorgier, Montalchez, Saint-Aubin-Sauges and Vaumarcus approves in a vote the project to merge into a single municipality.

2018 (1 January). Saint-Aubin-Sauges merges with Bevaix, Gorgier, Vaumarcus, Montalchez and Fresens to form the new municipality of La Grande Béroche; the village of Saint-Aubin-Sauges becomes its chief town and the seat of the municipal administration.

Population of Saint-Aubin-Sauges

Population of Saint-Aubin-Sauges
1784368 (270 in Saint-Aubin, 98 in Sauges)
1850778 (530 in Saint-Aubin, 248 in Sauges)
1880938 (675 in Saint-Aubin, 263 in Sauges)
1888990
19001'105
19501'358
20002'426
20102'428
20162'465 (to be cross-checked)
20172'399

Historic sites in Saint-Aubin-Sauges

Church of Saint-Aubin-Sauges. The current bell tower dates from 1416, while the rest of the building, a rectangular nave with a wooden ceiling and a late Gothic apse, was rebuilt around 1637. The church houses three Art Nouveau stained-glass windows by Clément Heaton (1904), regarded as an exceptional ensemble in French-speaking Switzerland, as well as a 1903 Kuhn organ restored in 2015 after a fire.

Villa Le Rafour. Built in 1901-1902 in neoclassical style by the architects Prince and Béguin for Louis Pernod, former director of the distillery of the same name, this residence has housed the municipal administration since 1984-1985 (to be cross-checked).

Former hospital of the Béroche. Founded in 1905 in a Heimatstil building and extended up to the 1970s, the regional hospital became a regional health unit in 2000 (closure of the maternity ward), then one of the sites of Hôpital neuchâtelois in 2006, before ceasing operations in 2016. It was bought by the municipality of La Grande Béroche to be converted into housing for elderly people and school premises.

Relais du Pattus. Former coaching inn established around 1600 on the road from Yverdon to Neuchâtel, by the lake; the historic restaurant building burned down on 17 June 1991 (to be cross-checked).

Shores of Lake Neuchâtel and vineyard hillside. The village extends from the shores of Lake Neuchâtel, at about 430 metres in altitude, up to the foothills of the Creux-du-Van massif, at nearly 1'435-1'436 metres. The local economy long relied on viticulture, before the development of watchmaking and mechanical construction at the turn of the 20th century.

Remains in Saint-Aubin-Sauges

Menhirs of Le Devens. Three granite menhirs, one of which measures 1.65 m in height by 0.85 m in width, are arranged in a triangle at the place called Le Devens, straddling the territories of the former municipalities of Saint-Aubin and Gorgier. In 1845, farmers had buried the largest of the three, hindered by its presence in a field; human bones as well as fragments of pottery and tiles were unearthed during the digging. The stone was re-erected the following year by the archaeologist Frédéric Dubois de Montperreux, on the orders of the government of Neuchâtel. Their precise dating remains uncertain, between the Middle Neolithic (5th millennium BC) and the Late Neolithic (3rd millennium BC).

Megalithic complex of Derrière la Croix. Alignments of granite menhirs erected in the first half of the 5th millennium BC, then reoccupied at the end of the 4th or start of the 3rd millennium BC. The site is said to have yielded some of the oldest known traces of wheat cultivation in Switzerland, as well as a water-related cult chamber dated to around 4500-4250 BC, where a rare Danubian-type hammer-axe was found (to be cross-checked).

Port-Conty lakeside station. Neolithic lakeside site north-east of the Tivoli site, in a cliff-lined bay between the hamlet of Sauges and the port of Saint-Aubin. Partly exposed during the drought of winter 1853-1854, reported in 1860 by Frédéric Troyon and explored in the 1860s by Dr Gustave Clément, it was excavated between 1921 and 1938 under the direction of Paul Vouga, who estimated its extent at 2'000 m². Three horizons were identified: the lower layer, which gave its name to the « Port-Conty » facies of the Cortaillod culture (3500-3300 BC), a Horgen layer with two phases dated by dendrochronology (around 3160-3159 and 3064-3062 BC) and an Auvernier Corded Ware layer (2700-2450 BC), with flint daggers from Grand-Pressigny. An artificial earth mound of about 20 by 10 m, comparable to the mound at Les Piécettes in Marin-Épagnier, suggests that the site may have served as a central place for a whole community around 3500 BC. The thousands of finds are kept at the Laténium. The site has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 2011.

Tumuli and Roman traces. Hallstatt and La Tène period tumuli have been uncovered in the area, as well as traces of Roman dwellings.

Sources

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