La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle

La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle
.
"La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, watchmaking town planning" refers to the twin towns that are the center of the Swiss watchmaking industry. Their city layout of parallel strips of houses and workshops was completely set up for the single goal of manufacturing.

Year Decision Comments
2009 Inscribed Reasons for inscription

Reviews

Frederik Dawson (Netherlands):
In the beautiful Jura mountain of Neuchatel canton near French border is where La Chaux-de-Fonds located, the third largest French speaking city of Switzerland and one of the most unique world heritage site in terms of inscription reason. There were many world heritage sites under the category of urban planning, La Chaux-de-Fonds’ nomination was dedicated to watch making industry city which in my opinion, a very interesting way to introduce the city as Cité Horlogère.

Admittedly La Chaux-de-Fonds actually was not in my original Switzerland plan, due to severely bad weather in the Jungfrau area, I had to cancel and need to go somewhere else instead, and La Chaux-de-Fonds was the chosen one since it was only 1.30 hour from Zurich by express train. The scenery between Biel and La Chaux-de-Fonds in May maybe one of the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in this country, the Heidi land with countless hills of beautiful alpine flowers, a great compensation to Jungfrau.

When I reached the city, I directly went to the famous international museum of watch making. The museum was great for watch enthusiasts and its collections easily could keep everyone inside for hours from early industrial clocks to futuristic ones or from heavily gilded watches with jewels to colorful plastic ones, one of the best museums of this region. However apart from the museum, I could not find anything special from the city except a city was well designed in block pattern liked New York’s Manhattan, and few pretty buildings that were so typical in Swiss towns.

Before I visited the city, I expected to see some watch factories open for tourists to explore or many shops selling watches and clocks produced locally, but no nothing was there, the Cité Horlogère was really hard to enjoy and apart from the museum, there was no reason to visit. At the end of the day, the amazing scenery from the train and the museum were my memories, I hardly remember anything from the city itself. As I mentioned La Chaux-de-Fonds’ nomination as Cité Horlogère was very interesting, but to be interested when visit was a totally different story.
Date posted: May 2010
Philipp Peterer (Switzerland):
Compared to the beauty of other Swiss cities La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle are rather disappointing. I'm sure this WHS deserves its status, but it's not really a spectacular site for sightseeing. I guess you have to be an expert in architecture to see the interesting aspect of these cities. However, the national watch museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds is well worth a visit. The exibition includes watches from all ages and all over the country. If you plan to visit this site, do it on a short trip from Neuchatel. La Chaux-de-Fonds is easy to reach from there by train.
Date posted: March 2010
Dr. J. K. Birksted (University College London):
In addition to the well-publicised heritage of La Chaux-de-Fonds, there are MANY other buildings and sites to discover such as “Le Manège” (an old Fourrierist building, now with a new resaurant), several remarkable interiors (of the early nineteenth-century Italianate theatre, of the masonic lodge and of old farmhouses, some of which are now restaurants), the mural paintings in the main library (Bibliothèque de la Ville de la Chaux-de-Fonds) and art museum by Charles Humbert, the murals at the Railway Station and on the Town Hall of Le Locle, the river at Le Doubs with its eighteenth-century restaurant (La Maison Monsieur) and so on. And of course there are the buildings by Charles-Edouard Jeanneret dit Le Corbusier and of his contemporaries at the Crematorium (architect Robert Belli with ornamentation by Charles L'Eplattenier), the old nineteenth-century abattoirs (architect Robert Belli), etc. For those interested in urban gardens and in rural landscapes, there is also a rich heritage. All this is due to the rich, complex and conflictual socio-cultural history of the area with its many famous historical visitors (Bakounin, Lenin, etc.). It is well worth reading about all of this before or while visiting La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle.
Dr. J. K. Birksted, University College London.
Date posted: August 2009


Have you been to La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, watchmaking town planning ? Share your experiences!

Add your own review