Grandson () is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is situated on the south-west tip of Lake Neuchâtel, about north of Lausanne. It was part of the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy until the death of Rudolph III of Burgundy (993–1032), also King of Lower Burgundy, the last in the male line, when it was united with the Holy Roman Empire. On 2 March 1476, during the Burgundian Wars, Charles the Bold was defeated here in the Battle of Grandson.
History
thumb|left|[[Menhir near Grandson, found buried underground and erected above the spot in 1895]]
The Grandson family is first mentioned in the second half of the 11th century as Grancione. The town was first mentioned around 1100 as de castro Grancione. Around 1126 it was mentioned as castri Grandissoni and in 1154 it was called apud Grantionem.
The most important stilt house settlement is at Corcelettes. The first Jura water correction of 1876 led to the drainage of a large part of the marshy field where the prehistoric village had been. The Federal Archaeology and History Museum in Lausanne seized the opportunity and started excavations in the following year which dragged on until 1880. Corcelettes is probably the one Swiss village that supplied the most metal objects from the Bronze Age to different museums and private collections around the world. In 1881, the stilt field was in size. In 1900 it was declared a Swiss heritage site of national significance. While it legally protected from looting, several thousand square meters of archaeologically important material has been lost due to erosion. Nevertheless, Corcelettes is one of the best preserved and largest lakeside settlements on Lake Neuchâtel.
By 1300, the entire town, except on the lake side, was surrounded by walls. The nearby villages of Provence, Bonvillars, Fiez, Concise and Yvonand were responsible for the maintenance of the walls. Otto I of Grandson rebuilt the old castle and enlarged it in 1277–1281. The castle was expanded again in the beginning of the 14th century. Otto de Grandson, also spelled Otton, Othon or Otho (c. 1238–1328), was the most prominent of the Savoyard knights in the service of King Edward I of England.
A large fire (probably in 1378, but first documented in 1397) destroyed the castle roof and a large portion of the courtyard. A is first mentioned in 1293, and before 1328 Otto I granted a charter to the town. On the north side of the church, a covered market was built. In the village of Le Revelin, outside the city walls and close to the Giez gate, butcher shops opened. Otto I promoted the mendicant orders and allowed the Franciscans to build a monastery at the western entrance of the town in 1289. Today only the church tower and some remains of the convent building are visible. A hospital was built in the second half of the 14th century in today's Rue Basse, near the Gey gate tower, which was destroyed in 1837. In 1420 the hospital came under the auspices of the town of Grandson.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 10.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.6%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.9% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 7.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 55.2% is used for growing crops and 7.0% is pastures, while 2.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.4% is in lakes and 0.8% is in rivers and streams.
The town is built on moraines on the west side of the Lake of Neuchâtel near where the Gransonnet brook flows into the lake. It is at the foot of the Jura Mountains in the northern-central part of the canton of Vaud.
The territory of the municipality rises quite steeply from the shores of the lake to about on the plateau. Là Outre is the highest point in the municipality at an elevation of .
The Arnon forms the northern boundary. In the southwest, it reaches to where the Brine flows into the lake.
Grandson includes the villages of Les Tuileries-de-Grandson and Corcelettes. The surrounding municipalities are Montagny-près-Yverdon, Valeyres-sous-Montagny, Giez, Fiez, Champagne, and Bonvillars.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, a Sun in his Spendour over a Crescent both Or.
This municipal coat of arms was introduced in the early 20th century. Before 1798, the Swiss bailiwick of Grandson continued using the 13th-century arms of the baronial family of Grandson; this was continued as unofficial municipal arms well into the 19th century.
Demographics
thumb|City hall building of Grandson
thumb|Grandson, aerial photo
thumb|upright|Along rue Haute in the old town
Grandson has a population () of . , 15.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 13.1%. It has changed at a rate of 13.5% due to migration and at a rate of −0.3% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (2,464 or 89.3%), with German being second most common (109 or 4.0%) and Italian being third (45 or 1.6%).
, there were 1,138 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,232 married individuals, 183 widows or widowers and 206 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 1,134 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household.
there were 1,282 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 385. There were 58 single room apartments and 341 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 1,101 apartments (85.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 147 apartments (11.5%) were seasonally occupied and 34 apartments (2.7%) were empty.
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Notable people
- Louis de Watteville (1776–1836), a Swiss mercenary in Dutch and British service
- Paolo Vietti-Violi (1882 in Grandson – 1965 in Vogogna, Italy) an Italian architect.
Heritage sites of national significance
thumb|[[Grandson Castle]]
It is home to one or more prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements that are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Grandson Castle and the Swiss Reformed Church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire town of Grandson is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 22.92% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (19.15%), the SVP (18.43%) and the LPS Party (12.55%). In the federal election, a total of 870 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 45.1%.
Economy
, Grandson had an unemployment rate of 4.5%. , there were 30 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 295 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 31 businesses in this sector. 898 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 85 businesses in this sector.
, there were 953 workers who commuted into the municipality and 942 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.0 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 6.0% of the workforce coming into Grandson are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 11.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 66.5% used a private car. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 578 children of which 359 children (62.1%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 183 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 183 students in those schools. There were also 5 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.
Grandson is home to 1 museum, the Fondation du Château de Grandson. In 2009 it was visited by 54,510 visitors (the average in previous years was 57,723).
, there were 326 students in Grandson who came from another municipality, while 159 residents attended schools outside the municipality.