L'Abbaye is a municipality in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the Jura-Nord Vaudois district in the Vallée de Joux. It takes its name from Lac de Joux Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery.
History
L'Abbaye was created as an independent municipality in 1571 from the municipality of Le Lieu.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 54.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 6.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.0% is used for growing crops and 9.3% is pastures and 24.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.
The municipality is located on the eastern shore of the Lac de Joux at an elevation of between and . It is located at the heart of the vallé de Joux in the Jura. It includes also the villages of Les Bioux and Le Pont.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or, a Bear's Head sable lined Argent ensigned on a Billet Gules bendwise three Escallops bendwise Or.
Demographics
L'Abbaye has a population () of . , 12.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 4.1%. It has changed at a rate of 5.2% due to migration and at a rate of -1.1% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (1,226 or 94.0%), with German being second most common (33 or 2.5%) and Portuguese being third (19 or 1.5%). There are 14 people who speak Italian.
, there were 476 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 662 married individuals, 102 widows or widowers and 64 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 569 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household.
there were 760 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 231. There were 32 single room apartments and 195 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 541 apartments (71.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 177 apartments (23.3%) were seasonally occupied and 42 apartments (5.5%) were empty.
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Heritage sites of national significance
The Manoir De Haute Roche is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Le Pont is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 21.98% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (17.84%), the LPS Party (14.87%) and the FDP (13.81%). In the federal election, a total of 399 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 45.7%.
Economy
, L'Abbaye had an unemployment rate of 3.5%. , there were 28 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 9 businesses involved in this sector. 926 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 23 businesses in this sector. 182 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 43 businesses in this sector.
, there were 403 workers who commuted into the municipality and 384 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 33.3% of the workforce coming into L'Abbaye are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 7% used public transportation to get to work, and 69.5% 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 67 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 78 students in those schools. There were also 1 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.
, there were 3 students in L'Abbaye who came from another municipality, while 141 residents attended schools outside the municipality.