Cully, Switzerland

(1925) The earliest traces of human activity in Cully come from the Neolithic, when Lake Geneva was near the modern port of Moratel. During the Roman Empire, the route from Lausanne to Great Saint Bernard ran through the area. From this time, some walls and coins have been found preserved. The first written mention of the place took place in 967 under the name Cusliacum. Later appeared the names Cusliaco (12th century), Custiacum (1154), Cullie (1226), Cully (1275) and Culyer (1383). The origin of the name is not clearly understood. It is possibly derived from the Roman family name Coclius. The first document involving Cully, saw it given to the King of Besançon. However, because Cully at the same time was under Villett parishe, which belonged to the bishop of Lausanne, there were constant disputes which led in 1246 to it being given back to the bishop of Lausanne. In the 14th century the inhabitants the acquired the right to hold a weekly market and fortify the village. With the conquest of Vaud by Bern in 1536, Cully came under the administration of the Bailiwick of Lausanne. After the collapse of the Ancien régime, the village belonged from 1798 to 1803 during the Helvetic Republic to the Canton of Léman. In 1798 Cully Lavaux became the capital of the district, as it was in the central part of the district. It was not until 1824, that Cully attained the status of an independent political community. A project to merge the independent municipalities Cully, Epesses, Riex, Grandvaux, and Villette (Lavaux) failed in a vote on 27 February 2005 due to the resistance of the population of Grandvaux. The project is therefore not being pursued. ==Geography==

Cully lies at an average altitude of , east-southeast of the canton capital Lausanne as the crow flies. The village is located in the Lavaux, on a slightly projecting outcrop into the Lake Geneva headland, at the foot of the vineyards of Mont de Gourze. Cully has an area, , of . Of this area, or 63.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 9.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 26.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 13.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 10.5%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.1%. Out of the forested land, 7.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 11.8% is used for growing crops and 16.4% is pastures, while 35.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipal area covers a section of the Lavaux at the northeastern shore of Lake Geneva. The land extends northward from the shore across the narrow riparian buffer strips and the slopes of the Lavaux, with the eastern boundary runs along the creek "Champaflon" then to the southeast to the Jorat plateau. In the northeast, the area extends to theMont de Gourze, which at is the highest point of Cully. In the area of Cully is the watershed between the catchments of the Rhine and Rhône, north of Lake Geneva. The extreme north of the municipality is the Broye River leading to the Rhine. Cully includes the hamlet Chenaux at an altitude of on a ridge in the vineyards above the village and a number of individual farms on the plateau. Surrounded by Cully are Grandvaux, Forel, Riex and Epesses. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess Argent and Gules, a Grape Bunch counterchanged. ==Demographics==

Cully has a population () of 1,752. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -1.6%. It has changed at a rate of 0.7% due to migration and at a rate of -2% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (1,510 or 84.0%), with German being second most common (99 or 5.5%) and Portuguese being third (77 or 4.3%). There are 32 people who speak Italian. , there were 672 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 888 married individuals, 122 widows or widowers and 116 individuals who are divorced. the average number of residents per living room was 0.57 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.61 per room. About 35.2% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage or a rent-to-own agreement). , there were 803 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. there were 956 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 254. There were 83 single room apartments and 232 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 783 apartments (81.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 125 apartments (13.1%) were seasonally occupied and 48 apartments (5.0%) were empty. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1140 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1900 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:400 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:80 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1568 from:start till:248 bar:1568 at:258 fontsize:S text: "62 Hearths" shift:(8,5) bar:1764 from:start till:483 text:"483" bar:1798 from:start till:615 text:"615" bar:1850 from:start till:880 text:"880" bar:1860 from:start till:1202 text:"1,202" bar:1870 from:start till:969 text:"969" bar:1880 from:start till:927 text:"927" bar:1888 from:start till:985 text:"985" bar:1900 from:start till:1101 text:"1,101" bar:1910 from:start till:1068 text:"1,068" bar:1920 from:start till:963 text:"963" bar:1930 from:start till:1149 text:"1,149" bar:1941 from:start till:1102 text:"1,102" bar:1950 from:start till:1296 text:"1,296" bar:1960 from:start till:1375 text:"1,375" bar:1970 from:start till:1535 text:"1,535" bar:1980 from:start till:1801 text:"1,801" bar:1990 from:start till:1843 text:"1,843" bar:2000 from:start till:1798 text:"1,798" ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 20.24% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (17.51%), the Green Party (14.86%) and the SVP (13.83%). In the federal election, a total of 601 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 53.1%. == Economy ==

Cully was, until the beginning of the 20th century, a predominantly agricultural village. Even today, the vineyards on the slopes of the Lavaux account for some 90 hectares and agriculture and livestock on the plateaus is an important factor in the employment structure of the population. 22% of the workforce are currently employed in agriculture, 6% in secondary industry, and the service sector accounts for 72%. The area west of the village has evolved in recent decades, a small commercial and industrial area in which businesses in the construction industry and information technology have grown up. The trade of Cully geared towards convenience goods and tourism and there are many wine shops. East of the village there is a small leisure port and a campground. Every year, the Cully Jazz Festival is held. Thanks to good transport links and an attractive location, the village has in recent decades developed into a residential community. Many workers though are commuters who work mainly in Lausanne and in the Vevey-Montreux region. , Cully had an unemployment rate of 3.5%. , there were 91 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 26 businesses involved in this sector. 63 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 19 businesses in this sector. 624 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 75 businesses in this sector. , there were 471 workers who commuted into the municipality and 610 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 15.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.4% used a private car. == Transportation ==

The community is well developed. It lies on the main road to Lausanne along Lake Geneva to Vevey (with a local bypass). The nearest motorway connections, built in 1974 is the A9 (Lausanne-Sion), which crosses Belmont (west) and Chexbres (east), each about from Cully. On 2 April 1861 a railway station was built in Cully on the Lausanne-Villeneuve section of the railway line from Lausanne to Valais. This station is now part of the RER Vaud commuter train network. Cully also provides a bus service which serves the route from Cully via Chexbres to the station Puidoux-Chexbres. Furthermore, Cully is also connected by boating on Lake Geneva. ==Heritage sites of national significance==

Cully includes part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Lavaux, Vineyard Terraces, which is also part of the list of Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire town of Cully is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. Cully has a historic center with narrow streets and picturesque winegrowers' houses dating from the 16th to 19th century. Of the former ramparts little more remains to be seen, the three former city gates were demolished. The Gothic church of Saint-Étienne was built in 1865–66 on the site of a medieval church. The Maison Jaune, built in 1641 is the Town Hall, and the Bâtiment de Villette (dating back to the 16th century) are listed buildings. Other important buildings are the Bâtiment Vallon (1673) and the Hôtel du Raisin, which was built in 1574 and remodeled in 1630 and formerly served as city hall. There is also a fountain and statue. The lakeside promenade and the port facilities are popular recreational and pedestrian zones. A scenic panorama of the Lake Geneva area, the Alps and the Jura is offered from the lookout tower on the Tower of Gourze from 925 m high on Mont de Gourze. ==Religion==

From the , 822 or 45.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 543 or 30.2% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 51 members of an Orthodox church (or about 2.84% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.17% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 24 individuals (or about 1.33% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were two individuals (or about 0.11% of the population) who were Jewish, and 16 (or about 0.89% of the population) who were Muslim. There was one person who was Hindu and seven individuals who belonged to another church. 266 (or about 14.79% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 73 individuals (or about 4.06% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Cully about 597 or (33.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 366 or (20.4%) have completed additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule). Of the 366 who completed tertiary schooling, 52.7% were Swiss men, 29.2% were Swiss women, 10.4% were non-Swiss men and 7.7% were non-Swiss women. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 665 children of which 232 children (34.9%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 85 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 83 students in those schools. There were also 3 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school. , there were 139 students in Cully who came from another municipality, while 136 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==In popular culture==

The fictional daughter of leading Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby in the long-running TV show Midsomer Murders is named Cully. She was conceived in the city of Cully on her parents' honeymoon. == Notable people ==

• Alfredo Bovet (1909 in Cully - 1993) a Swiss-born Italian cyclist • Pierrette Micheloud (1915 – 2007 in Cully) a Swiss writer and painter • Michel Voïta (born 1957 in Cully) a Swiss actor, has appeared in more than sixty films since 1983 ==References==