Vevey

A piloti settlement existed here as early as the 2nd millennium BC. Under Rome, it was known as Viviscus or Vibiscum. It was mentioned for the first time by the ancient Greek astronomer and philosopher Ptolemy, who gave it the name Ouikos. In the Middle Ages it was a station on the Via Francigena. It was then ruled by the bishopric of Lausanne, and later under the Blonay family. In the 1660s, several of the English regicides fled to Switzerland, and many of them settled in Vevey under the protection of the Bernese government. Vevey lived through a period of prosperity after the Vaud Revolution of 1798. In the 19th century industrial activities included mechanical engineering at the Ateliers de Constructions Mécaniques de Vevey, food (Nestlé) and tobacco (Rinsoz & Ormond). Vevey is a major center of the Swiss chocolate industry since the 18th century. The Cailler factory was founded in 1819. Milk chocolate was also developed there by Daniel Peter in 1875. ==Geography==

Vevey has an area, , of . Of this area, or 2.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 4.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 89.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.7% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.9% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 51.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 26.9%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.7% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 6.7%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 0.4% is used for growing crops and 1.7% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Or and Azure, two Letters V interlaced counterchanged. ==Demographics==

Vevey has a population () of . , 43.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 16.2%. It has changed at a rate of 14.2% due to migration and at a rate of 3.4% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (12,526 or 77.3%) as their first language, with Italian being second most common (854 or 5.3%) and Portuguese being third (601 or 3.7%). There are 599 people who speak German and 7 people who speak Romansh. , there were 6,936 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 6,966 married individuals, 1,065 widows or widowers and 1,235 individuals who are divorced. , there were 7,830 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2. persons per household. , a total of 7,752 apartments (83.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,117 apartments (12.0%) were seasonally occupied and 430 apartments (4.6%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.45%. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:18000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:4000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:800 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:5201 text:"5,201" bar:1860 from:start till:6494 text:"6,494" bar:1870 from:start till:7540 text:"7,540" bar:1880 from:start till:7475 text:"7,475" bar:1888 from:start till:7925 text:"7,925" bar:1900 from:start till:11781 text:"11,781" bar:1910 from:start till:13664 text:"13,664" bar:1920 from:start till:12768 text:"12,768" bar:1930 from:start till:13036 text:"13,036" bar:1941 from:start till:12598 text:"12,598" bar:1950 from:start till:14264 text:"14,264" bar:1960 from:start till:16269 text:"16,269" bar:1970 from:start till:17957 text:"17,957" bar:1980 from:start till:16139 text:"16,139" bar:1990 from:start till:15968 text:"15,968" bar:2000 from:start till:16202 text:"16,202" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

There are 14 structures in Vevey that are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The four museums on the list are: the Alimentarium; the Museum de la Confrérie des Vignerons (fr); the Museum Jenisch; the Museum suisse de l'appareil photographique (fr). There are three churches: the Roman Catholic Church of Notre-Dame; the Orthodox Church of the Great Martyr Barbara; the Swiss Reformed Church of Saint-Martin. The other seven buildings are: the Administration Building and Historical Archives of Nestlé SA; Aile Castle; the Cour au Chantre; the City Hall; the Hôtel des Trois-Couronnes; the La Grenette and Place du Marché; the Saint-Jean Tower and Fountain. Heritage gallery File:Alimentarium.jpg|Alimentarium File:Fork of Vevey.jpg | Fork of Vevey, a monument on Geneva Lake by Alimentarium File:Vevey, Musée suisse de l’appareil photographique 1.jpg|Museum suisse de l'appareil photographique (Photography museum) File:2009-08-27 Lake Geneva 403.JPG | Administration Building Nestlé File:Vevey - Château de l'Aile - 2022-06 - 07.jpg| Aile Castle File:Vevey - Église catholique Notre-Dame.jpg|Catholic Church File:Picswiss VD-43-24.jpg | Eastern Orthodox Church File:Église Saint-Martin de Vevey.jpg | Swiss Reformed Church of Saint-Martin File:Vevey town hall.JPG | City Hall File:Vevey, Hôtel des trois couronnes.jpg|Hôtel des Trois-Couronnes File:Vevey, Place du marché et Grenette 5.jpg|La Grenette and Place du Marché File:Tour Saint Jean et fontaine 2.jpg|Saint-Jean Tower and Fountain ==Main sights==

The Grande Place is dominated by a granary known as La Grenette, built in 1803 in the Neo-Classical "rustic" style. Behind La Grenette is the restaurant La Clef, in which Jean-Jacques Rousseau used to eat. The table at which he sat is still to be seen in the restaurant. St Martin's Church, a few minutes' walk away from the Grande Place, contains the bodies of a number of those who condemned King Charles I of England to death – especially that of Edmund Ludlow who escaped to Vevey after the death of Oliver Cromwell. Additionally, there is a large fork just off the shore of the lake. The fork was originally installed in 1995 as a temporary exhibit. Removed in 1996 and replaced in 2007, it finally got authorization to remain in the lake in 2008 and has become an emblem for the townspeople. Festivals The Confrérie des Vignerons (Brotherhood of Winegrowers) organises the Winegrowers' Festival (Fête des Vignerons) four or five times each century (one per generation) to celebrate its wine-growing traditions and culture. On those occasions an arena for 16,000 spectators is built in the marketplace – the Grande Place, which is the second-biggest marketplace in Europe, after Lisbon, Portugal. The festivals date from the 18th century; the last five were in 1927, 1955, 1977, 1999, and 2019. Market The town is also known for its large market on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. The Vevey folk markets, known locally as the Marchés Folkloriques, normally has up to 2000 visitors each Saturday over a period of two months. (Second week of July to end August). Visitors can buy a wine-glass and drink to their heart's content while listening to brass bands, Swiss folk music, and watching traditional craftsmen at work. These Folk Markets are organised by the Société de développement de Vevey. ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election, the most popular party was the SP, which received 27.21% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (17.86%), the Green Party (16.21%) and the FDP (10.83%). In the federal election, a total of 3,217 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 40.0%. Many of the Union Cycliste Internationale defamation lawsuits against its critics have occurred under the Est Vaudois district court of Vevey. ==Economy==

. , Vevey had an unemployment rate of 8.1%. , there were 9 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 6 businesses involved in this sector. 1,320 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 134 businesses in this sector. 10,014 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 985 businesses in this sector. , there were 8,153 workers who commuted into the municipality and 4,049 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.0 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 1.2% of the workforce coming into Vevey are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 25.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 42.2% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 6,676 or 41.2% were Roman Catholic, while 4,224 or 26.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 427 members of an Orthodox church (or about 2.64% of the population), there were 8 individuals (or about 0.05% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 685 individuals (or about 4.23% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 43 individuals (or about 0.27% of the population) who were Jewish, and 1,083 (or about 6.68% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 52 individuals who were Buddhist, 47 individuals who were Hindu and 38 individuals who belonged to another church. 2,189 (or about 13.51% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 1,050 individuals (or about 6.48% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Weather==

Vevey has an average of 124.1 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time Vevey receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 10.7 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 12.7, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is February with an average of of precipitation over 9.4 days. ==Education==

In Vevey about 5,104 or (31.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 2,069 or (12.8%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 2,069 who completed tertiary schooling, 43.5% were Swiss men, 29.2% were Swiss women, 15.4% were non-Swiss men and 11.9% were non-Swiss women. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 817 children of which 456 children (55.8%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 1,024 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 852 students in those schools. There were also 92 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school. , there were 712 students in Vevey who came from another municipality, while 537 residents attended schools outside the municipality. In 2009 the Alimentarium was visited by 61,358 visitors (the average in previous years was 57,530). In the same year the Musée Jenisch was closed for renovations but the average in previous years was 17,286, and the ''Musée suisse de l'appareil photo'' was visited by 10,989 visitors (the average in previous years was 11,874). ==Sports==

FC Vevey-Sports 05 is the town's football club. Club Aviron Vevey, also known as CAVy, is the town's rowing club. They currently hold the title for the best rowing club in Romandie. ==Infrastructure==

Healthcare Two hospitals are located in the municipality (Providence, in activity, and Samaritain, under renovation), as well at the Pharmacy of the Eastern Vaud Hospitals (until 2019). Transportation Vevey railway station, the first station to be "automated" in 1956, is served by several routes of the RER Vaud commuter rail system. It has frequent trains to Blonay, Lausanne, Geneva, Montreux and Villeneuve, among others. The Vevey–Chardonne–Mont Pèlerin funicular links Vevey with the summit of Mont Pèlerin. The Vevey–Villeneuve trolleybus line is the last remaining of the five interurban trolleybus lines that have existed in Switzerland. It largely follows Swiss main road no. 9, passes through the municipalities of Vevey, La Tour-de-Peilz, Montreux, Veytaux and Villeneuve, and serves a total of 41 stops. Also known as line 201, it operates every 10 minutes during the day between termini at the base station of the funicular and Villeneuve. The number 213 bus line, operated by motor buses, goes up to Châtel-Saint-Denis and Bossonnens. There are also late night Petit Prince buses. Vevey is well connected on the lake with boats going to all the major harbours like Le Bouveret, Saint Gingolph, Évian, Lausanne and more. ==Literary references==

The action of Rousseau's Julie, or the New Heloise is set in and around Vevey. Vevey, and in particular the hotel "Trois Couronnes" is one of two locations that comprise the setting of Henry James' novella Daisy Miller. In Ernest Hemingway's short story "A Canary for One", three Americans—a woman and a couple—meet on a train. Vevey is named as the place where the daughter of the woman fell in love with a local man and was taken away by her family, while the couple had spent their honeymoon there. It is also mentioned in Little Women, the classic American novel by Louisa May Alcott, as the location of the young Theodore "Laurie" Laurence's early studies at boarding school as well as a stop on Amy March's European trip. It is in Vevey where she hears of her sister's death and becomes engaged to Laurie. Vevey was also the place where, in real life, Alcott met Ladislas Wiesniewski, who served as one of the models for Laurie. Vevey is also the lakeside town used as the setting for Anita Brookner's Booker Prize-winning novel Hotel du Lac. H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come, published in 1934, predicted a Second World War breaking out in 1940 and lasting until 1950. In this future scenario, Vevey is depicted as the venue of an international peace conference held in 1941, where various prominent diplomats and statesmen gather, deliver "brilliant pacifist speeches [which] echo throughout Europe", but fail to end the war. A small village church above Vevey is mentioned by John Ruskin in The Stones of Venice, CHAPTER XI, The Arch Masonry, Page 169, diagram 5. Commenting on it, "It could hardly be stronger". == Prix Clara Haskil ==

The Clara Haskil International Piano Competition is held biennially in her memory. The brochure reads: "The Clara Haskil Competition was founded in 1963 to honour and perpetuate the memory of the incomparable Swiss pianist, of Romanian origin, who was born in Bucharest in 1895. It takes place every two years in Vevey, Switzerland, where Clara Haskil resided from 1942 until her death in Brussels in 1960. ==In modern music==

Rick Wakeman, keyboardist for the progressive-rock band Yes, recorded the final organ portion of the song "Awaken", and the organ part in the song "Parallels", (both on the Yes album Going for the One), on the pipe organ in St. Martin's Church in Vevey. A further instrumental track, Vevey (Revisited) appears in part on the 'YesYears' album, and in full on the 2003 remaster of Going for the One. Wakeman also used the St. Martin's organ on his solo album (recorded shortly after Going for the One) "Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record" most notably in the final track "Judas Iscariot". Vevey, along with the Vineyards of Lavaux are mentioned in the song Lavaux on singer Prince's album 20Ten. == Photo gallery ==

File:RoyLindmanSantaBarbara 002.jpg|Saint Barbara Orthodox church File:Picswiss VD-43-28.jpg|Old Town File:Vevey Office of Tourism.JPG|Tourism Office in Vevey File:View of Vevey & Mountains.JPG|Vevey and surrounding mountains File:Vevey.JPG|Alimentarium Museum File:Hungry Charlie Chaplin.jpg|Hungry Charlie Chaplin File:RoyLindmanVeveyMarketSquare.jpg|One of the biggest open Market Squares in the world File:Vevey-Commune 1904.jpg|Bond of the Commune de Vevey, issued 30. January 1904 == Notable people born in Vevey ==

• Abraham Ruchat (1680–1750), Protestant theologian and historian • Françoise-Louise de Warens (1699–1762), benefactress of Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Charles Labelye (1705–1762), bridge engineer, architect of the first Westminster Bridge • François-Louis Cailler (1796–1852), chocolatier • Jacques Etienne Chevalley de Rivaz (1801–1863), physician • Alexandre Calame (1810–1864), painter • Émile Burnat (1828–1920), botanist • Henri Dor (1835–1912), ophthalmologist • August Socin (1837–1899), surgeon and educator • Sir John Pentland Mahaffy GBE CVO (1839–1919), Irish classicist and polymathic scholar • Edmond de Palézieux (1850–1924), marine painter, amateur sailor and navigator • Edmond Louis Budry (1854–1932), hymn writer • Auguste de Niederhäusern (1863–1913), better known as Rodo, a sculptor and medalist • Infante Jaime, Duke of Madrid (1870–1931), Legitimist and Carlist claimant to the French and Spanish thrones • Gustave Roussy (1874–1948), Swiss-French neuropathologist • Ernest Ansermet (1883–1969), orchestral conductor • Aline Valangin (1889–1986), writer, pianist and psychoanalyst • Marc Amsler (1891–1968), professor of ophthalmology at the University of Zurich • Wolfgang R. Wasow (1909–1993), American mathematician • Anne-Marie Blanc (1919–2009), film and television actress • Jean-Pascal Delamuraz (1936–1998), politician, member of Swiss Federal Council 1983–1998 • Éric Gaudibert (1936–2012), composer in the French "avant-garde" style • Jacques Moreillon (born 1939), Director General of the Red Cross (ICRC) until 1988 • Francis Reusser (born 1942), film director • Claude Nicollier (born 1944), the first astronaut from Switzerland • Antoine Chessex (born 1980), composer, saxophone player and sound artist • RAF Camora (Raphael Ragucci, born 1984), rapper known as RAF Camora ; Sport • Bruno d'Harcourt (1899–1930), French nobility and a Grand Prix motor racing driver • Pascal Richard (born 1964), former racing cyclist, gold medalist in the 1996 Summer Olympics • Aurélien Clerc (born 1979), former professional road bicycle racer • Thabo Sefolosha (born 1984), professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz • Émilie Gex-Fabry (born 1986), ski mountaineer • Natacha Gachnang (born 1987), racing driver • Lucas Légeret (born 2001), racing driver == Notable residents past and present ==

, poster – ''A Dog's Life'', 1918 , North by Northwest, 1959 portrait, 1753 • Olga Baclanova (1893 – 1974 in Vevey), Russian-born actress. • Franz Brünnow (1821–1891) a German astronomer, moved to Vevey in 1880. • Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), British comedian, director, actor, and writer. (Corsier-sur-Vevey) • Peter Cowie (born 1939), film historian Romantic movement • Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881), Russian novelist • Dionizije Dvornić (1926 – 1992 in Vevey), Croatian football player • Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), German philosopher and communist • Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852), Russian novelist • Graham Greene (1904–1991), British writer (Corseaux) • Clara Haskil (1895–1960), Swiss Romanian classical pianist, lived in Vevey from 1942 • Bruno Hoffmann (1913–1991), German glass harp player • Victor Hugo (1802–1885), French poet and writer • Edouard Jeanneret (1887–1965), known as Le Corbusier, Swiss architect • Duncan Jones (born 1971), film director and his father David Bowie (1947–2016), musician • Paul Juon (1872–1940), Germanised Russian composer • Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) Austrian artist of expressionistic portraits, poet and playwright • Paul Kruger (1825 – 1904 at Clarens, near Vevey) a South African politician. • Robert John "Mutt" Lange (born 1948), record producer and songwriter • Edmund Ludlow (ca.1617–1692), general and politician in Oliver Cromwell's government and enemy of King Charles I. • Nikita Magaloff (1912 – 1992 in Vevey), Georgian-Russian pianist • Jules Massenet (1842–1912), French composer (while composing Esclarmonde) • James Mason (1909–1984), actor, (Corsier-sur-Vevey) • Thomas Medwin (1788–1869), writer and biographer of his cousin Percy Bysshe Shelley, honeymoon in Vevey • John Lothrop Motley (1814–1877), author of The Rise of the Dutch Republic. • Nubar Pasha (1825–1899) an Egyptian-Armenian politician, the first Prime Minister of Egypt; educated by Jesuits in Vevey. • Daniel Peter (1836–1919), inventor of milk chocolate bar, lived and died in Vevey • Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), Swiss writer and philosopher, father of the European Romantic movement. • Percy Scholes (1877 – 1958 in Vevey), English musician and writer • Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846 – 1916 in Vevey), a, Polish writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His statue stands in the garden of the Grand Hôtel du Lac. • Jacob Spon (1647 – 1685 in Vevey) a French doctor and archaeologist. • Henry Philip Tappan (1805–1881), first president of the University of Michigan • Shania Twain (born 1965), Canadian country singer-songwriter ==International relations==

Twin towns – sister cities Vevey is twinned with: Vevay, Indiana ==See also==