Aubonne () is a municipality in the district of Morges in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. In 2011 the former municipality of Pizy merged into Aubonne and on 1 January 2021 Montherod merged into it.

History

thumb|left|Aerial view from 400 m by [[Walter Mittelholzer (1919)]]

thumb|left|Church and castle with its minaret-style tower, built 1680 for [[Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, at Aubonne]]

The municipality was settled very early. The oldest remains are from the Bronze Age. From Roman times, there remain foundations of villas, and from early medieval times, graves.

The first documentation of the municipality is from 1177 under the name of Albona.

Montherod

Montherod was first mentioned in about 1344 as Monterot.

Geography

thumb|left|A view of Aubonne

Aubonne lies at an elevation of . west of Lausanne. It is spread in the valley of the river Aubonne, on the edge of the Jura foothill plateau, about above the surface of Lake Geneva.

The highest point in the municipality is at an elevation of

The villages of Trévelin and Bougy-Saint-Martin belong to the municipality. The surrounding municipalities are Allaman, Féchy, Pizy, Montherod, Saint-Livres, Lavigny, and Etoy.

Aubonne has an area, (as of the 2004/09 survey), of . Of this area, or 63.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 14.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 22.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.7% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.4% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.0% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 9.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.4%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.6% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.2%. Out of the forested land, 11.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 33.2% is used for growing crops and 8.3% is pastures, while 21.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Gules and Or.

Demographics

thumb|A view over Aubonne

thumb|Apartment buildings in Aubonne

thumb|Streets in the older part of town

Aubonne has a population () of . , 24.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 5.9%. It has changed at a rate of 2.3% due to migration and at a rate of 3.8% due to births and deaths.

Most of the population () speaks French (2,160 or 84.0%), with German being second most common (133 or 5.2%) and Portuguese being third (93 or 3.6%). There are 86 people who speak Italian and 4 people who speak Romansh.

, there were 1,048 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,258 married individuals, 150 widows or widowers and 114 individuals who are divorced.

, there were 1,102 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household.

there were 1,252 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 375. There were 76 single room apartments and 336 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 1,075 apartments (85.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 145 apartments (11.6%) were seasonally occupied and 32 apartments (2.6%) were empty.

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bar:1850 from:start till:1730 text:"1,730"

bar:1860 from:start till:1734 text:"1,734"

bar:1870 from:start till:1706 text:"1,706"

bar:1880 from:start till:1846 text:"1,846"

bar:1888 from:start till:1783 text:"1,783"

bar:1900 from:start till:1736 text:"1,736"

bar:1910 from:start till:1621 text:"1,621"

bar:1920 from:start till:1596 text:"1,596"

bar:1930 from:start till:1565 text:"1,565"

bar:1941 from:start till:1664 text:"1,664"

bar:1950 from:start till:1682 text:"1,682"

bar:1960 from:start till:1766 text:"1,766"

bar:1970 from:start till:1983 text:"1,983"

bar:1980 from:start till:1958 text:"1,958"

bar:1990 from:start till:2410 text:"2,410"

bar:2000 from:start till:2570 text:"2,570"

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Heritage sites of national significance

thumb| [[Aubonne Castle and Aubonne.]]

The Former Federal Powder Mill, Aubonne Castle, the City Hall and grenette, the D'Aspre House with Orangery, the Manoir et manège are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire town of Aubonne and the Federal Powder Mill are listed as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Tourism

A wood museum was opened in 1967. The first arboretum in the canton of Vaud was established in 1963 in Aubonne. It has an area of about 200 hectares and features both native and imported trees.

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 21.08% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (17.1%), the FDP (15.81%) and the Green Party (13.72%). In the federal election, a total of 861 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 52.6%.

Economy

thumb|upright|Hotel-de-Ville at Aubonne.

Aubonne was long an agricultural town. Today, however, agriculture plays a secondary role. Agricultural products of the region include wine.

Because Aubonne does not lie on the Lausanne–Geneva railway built in the 19th century, industrialization began relatively late. The first factory, a gunpowder factory, was built in 1853. In the 20th century, a precision machine shop, laboratories, furniture manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies have come to Aubonne.

Today, the majority of jobs are in the service sector.

, Aubonne had an unemployment rate of 3%. , there were 110 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 22 businesses involved in this sector. 623 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 39 businesses in this sector. 1,591 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 191 businesses in this sector.

, there were 1,533 workers who commuted into the municipality and 799 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.9 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 3.9% of the workforce coming into Aubonne are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 11.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 62.4% used a private car. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 631 children of which 203 children (32.2%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 179 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 157 students in those schools. There were also 5 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.

, there were 412 students in Aubonne who came from another municipality, while 184 residents attended schools outside the municipality.´

References

  • Aubonne website