Moudon (; ; ) is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It was the seat of Moudon District and is now in the Broye-Vully district.
History
Montmagny was known as Minnodunum or Minnidunum during the Roman era. Around 1100, 1154 and 1180 it was mentioned as Meldun, in 1161 it was Moudon and in 1167 as Meldunum or Mildunum.
Geography
thumb|left|[[Broye river in Moudon]]
thumb|left|Aerial view (1946)
Moudon has an area, , of . Of this area, or 46.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 35.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 16.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.9% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 6.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.5%. Out of the forested land, 32.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 27.9% is used for growing crops and 17.8% is pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 1.6% is in rivers and streams.
The upper city is located at the confluence of the Mérine and Broye rivers. The lower city stretches downstream along the Broye river. It lies on the intersection of two historically important roads, one from Italy to Burgundy and the other between Geneva and Bern. It consists of the village of Moudon and the hamlets of Plan and Villaret, the northern section of the hamlet of Bressonnaz-Dessous and numerous (mostly medieval) farm house settlements including Alliérens, Beauregard, Belflori, Chalabruz, Cornier, Frémont, La Baume, La Cerjaulaz, La Faye, Le Grand-Pré, Grange-Verney, Gréchon, Montsandon, Valacrêt.
The municipalities of Moudon and Rossenges are considering a merger at a date in the future into the new municipality of Moudon.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale Gules and Vert, overall a capital M Or.
Demographics
thumb|Green space in Moudon
thumb|18th Century Arsenal
thumb|upright|Manor house in Moudon
Moudon has a population () of . , 37.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 10.8%. It has changed at a rate of 7.2% due to migration and at a rate of 4.7% due to births and deaths.
Most of the population () speaks French (3,474 or 79.5%), with Portuguese being second most common (197 or 4.5%) and Albanian being third (172 or 3.9%). There are 130 people who speak German, 95 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh.
, there were 1,791 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,128 married individuals, 265 widows or widowers and 187 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 1,720 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household.
there were 2,000 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 712. There were 141 single room apartments and 348 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 1,676 apartments (83.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 204 apartments (10.2%) were seasonally occupied and 120 apartments (6.0%) were empty.
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bar:1860 from:start till:2329 text:"2,329"
bar:1870 from:start till:2372 text:"2,372"
bar:1880 from:start till:2402 text:"2,402"
bar:1888 from:start till:2608 text:"2,608"
bar:1900 from:start till:2683 text:"2,683"
bar:1910 from:start till:2702 text:"2,702"
bar:1920 from:start till:2652 text:"2,652"
bar:1930 from:start till:2478 text:"2,478"
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Heritage sites of national significance
The Ancien Grenier, the Swiss Reformed Church of Saint-Étienne, the Fountain de Moïse (Moses Fountain), the City Hall, the D’Arnay House, the États de Vaud House, the Loys de Villardin House, the De Rochefort House, the Tacheron House and the Castle Tower are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.
<gallery>
Picswiss VD-50-07.jpg|Swiss Reformed Church of Saint-Étienne
Picswiss VD-50-31.jpg|Fountain de Moïse
Moudon Bourg.jpg|Castle tower and upper city
Maison des États de Vaud - Moudon.jpg|Maison des États de Vaud
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Twin Town
Moudon is twinned with:
- Mazan, France
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 33.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (22.62%), the SP (17.31%) and the Green Party (10.9%). In the federal election, a total of 904 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 41.4%.
Economy
thumb|Moudon train station
, Moudon had an unemployment rate of 6.6%. , there were 64 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 740 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 65 businesses in this sector. 1,619 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 210 businesses in this sector.
, there were 1,366 workers who commuted into the municipality and 875 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.6 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 11.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.5% used a private car. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 155 children of which 83 children (53.5%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 347 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 269 students in those schools. There were also 49 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.
, there were 514 students in Moudon who came from another municipality, while 136 residents attended schools outside the municipality.