Neuchâtel

Sister cities

• Sansepolcro
• Besançon
• Aarau

History

The oldest traces of humans in the municipal area are the remains of a Magdalenian hunting camp, which was dated to 13,000 BC. It was discovered in 1990 during construction of the A5 motorway at Monruz (La Coudre). The site was about below the main road. Around the fire pits carved flints and bones were found. In addition to the flint and bone artifacts three tiny earrings from lignite were found. The earrings may have served as symbols of fertility and represent the oldest known art in Switzerland. This first camp was used by Cro-Magnons to hunt horse and reindeer in the area. Azilian hunters had a camp at the same site at about 11,000 BC. Since the climate had changed, their prey was now deer and wild boar. During the 19th century, traces of some stilt houses were found in Le Cret near the red church. However, their location was not well documented and the site was lost. In 1999, during construction of the lower station of the funicular railway, which connects the railway station and university, the settlement was rediscovered. It was later determined to be a Cortaillod culture (middle Neolithic) village. According to dendrochronological studies, some of the piles were from 3571 BC. Peseux was first mentioned in 1195 as apud Pusoz though this comes from a 15th-century copy of an earlier document. In 1278 it was mentioned as de Posoys. Valangin was first mentioned in 1241 as de Valengiz.

Geography

Before the 2021 merger of municipalities, Neuchâtel had an area, , of . Of this area, or 10.2% was used for agricultural purposes, while or 53.8% was forested. Of the rest of the land, or 35.5% was settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% was either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% was unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 18.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 10.1%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.3%. Out of the forested land, 51.8% of the total land area was heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.4% was used for growing crops and 8.0% was pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.