Courtelary is first mentioned in 968 as
Curtis Alerici in a list of the properties of
Moutier-Grandval Abbey. In 1179,
Pope Alexander III elevated the Abbot to a
Canon and confirmed the Abbots title to Courtelary. In 1733 a meeting at the Courtelary Castle exploded into a riot and the Prince-Bishop's
bailiff, Benoît-Aimé Mestrezat, was forced to flee the city. In 1792 and 1793, heavily influenced by the
French Revolution, the revolutionary National Assembly of Erguel was established in Courtelary. Revolutionaries flocked to the town and established a short-lived Republic of Erguel. In 1797 the
French invaded the lands of the Bishop of Basel and established the Canton of Courtelary with Courtelary as the capital. The Canton was initially part of the
Department of
Mont-Terrible followed by the Department of
Haut-Rhin. After
Napoleon's defeat, in 1815, the Erguel region became part of the
Canton of Bern. Courtelary was the capital of the District of Erguel until 1831 when it became the capital of the District of Courtelary. Chocolates in Courtelary Courtelary remained a rural and agricultural town until the early 20th Century. The farms on the valley floor produced grain for local use. In contrast, the surrounding mountain pastures were used by
Anabaptist sharecroppers to raise dairy cattle and other livestock. They then produced butter and cheese which they exported. In 1874 the Biel-
Les Convers-
La Chaux-de-Fonds railroad was built through the town. The lower transportation costs from the railroad allowed a wood pulp factory to be built in Courtelary. In 1935, the
Camille Bloch chocolate factory moved into the old wood pulp building. Other than the chocolate factory, manufacturing developed very slowly in Courtelary. A few precision machine and watch parts factories were built during the early 20th century, but during the 1970s these industries declined. In the following decades the industrial sector rebounded and in 2000 about 47% of the working population worked in industry. ==Geography==