Versoix (; local Arpitan dialect: Varchoè) is a municipality in the Canton of Geneva, in Switzerland. It is located in the northern suburbs of Geneva.

Toponymy

The name of the commune is of uncertain origin. It could be composed of the Proto-Indo-European base *uer- ("water, river"), the infix -s-, and suffix -ogia. It is first attested from 1026 to 1031, in the Medieval Latin form Uersoi. Its name in Genevan patois is Varchoè. The commune is nicknamed "the Crow's Nest".

Geography

thumb|left|Versoix river at Versoix, 2007

thumb|left|Aerial view from 100 m by [[Walter Mittelholzer (1925)]]

Versoix has an area, , of . Of this area, or 29.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 38.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 32.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 19.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.7%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.8%. Out of the forested land, 36.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 23.1% is used for growing crops and 3.5% is pastures, while 2.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.4% is in lakes and 0.4% is in rivers and streams.

It is the last town of the Canton of Geneva on the road northeast towards Lausanne, before the Canton of Vaud starts. It is a train stop on the Swiss Federal Railways line running between Coppet and Geneva. On the Vaud side, the next village is called Mies.

The distance from the centre of Geneva is about 10 km, and it takes around 15 minutes by train or car to get into downtown.

Demographics

Versoix has a population () of . , 41.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 23.3%. It has changed at a rate of 19% due to migration and at a rate of 5.8% due to births and deaths.

Most of the population () speaks French (7,611 or 73.8%), with English being second most common (738 or 7.2%) and German being third (415 or 4.0%). There are 281 people who speak Italian and 3 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality 1,979 or about 19.2% were born in Versoix and lived there in 2000. There were 1,978 or 19.2% who were born in the same canton, while 1,603 or 15.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 4,052 or 39.3% were born outside of Switzerland.

, there were 3,977 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household.

there were 4,536 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 1,406. There were 293 single room apartments and 991 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 3,734 apartments (82.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 676 apartments (14.9%) were seasonally occupied and 126 apartments (2.8%) were empty.

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Heritage sites of national significance

thumb|Roof of Villa Bartholony

The Bourg, a Bronze Age littoral settlement, and the Villa Bartholony (Sans Souci) are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The Bourg settlement is part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sights

thumb|center|800px|

It is the hub for many humanitarian organizations and other organizations within the environmental, science, and technology fields. The University of Geneva has part of its campus, in particular the department of astronomy and its observatory, in Versoix, while the International Committee of the Red Cross maintains a training center there. Versoix has its official music band, the "Musique Municipale de Versoix", which also provides a music school. Versoix is also known for the impressive ice formations, or icicles, which can be seen mainly in the coast line during the winter.

thumb|Ice formations next to the lake

Chocolate

thumb|A display at the Chocolate Festival, 2010

The Swiss chocolate manufacturer Favarger has its headquarters and factory in Versoix. Since 2004, Versoix has organized a chocolate festival. At this festival you can taste various artisan chocolates and visit the Favarger chocolate factory. Festival activities include treasure hunts.

Hobbies and sports

thumb|Versoix sports center, 2002

There is one sports center in Versoix, La Bécassière. It contains two pools, soccer fields, basketball courts and a beach-volleyball court. The pool in Versoix consists of two outdoor pools, a snack-bar, a restaurant with a terrace and a playground.

Versoix has a Parcours VITA-FUITE of , in the Versoix woods.

Sports clubs

  • Le football club Versoix (FC Versoix)
  • Le club de basket Versoix (Versoix Basket)
  • Le badminton club Versoix ( BCV)
  • Le judo, ju-jutsu club Versoix (JCV)
  • Le tennis club Versoix (TCV)
  • Le club nautique de Versoix
  • Plastic colorful sabre training school
  • Le Bushido Club Versoix Genève (jujutsu) (BCVG)
  • Société de tir de Versoix (STV)(Versoix shooting sports Société founded in 1881)

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 22.27% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Green Party (18.16%), the SP (17.05%) and the LPS Party (13.65%). In the federal election, a total of 2,338 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 42.7%.

In the 2009 Grand Conseil election, there were a total of 5,631 registered voters of which 1,919 (34.1%) voted. The most popular party in the municipality for this election was the Libéral with 16.1% of the ballots. In the canton-wide election they received the highest proportion of votes. The second most popular party was the Les Verts (with 15.9%), they were also second in the canton-wide election, while the third most popular party was the Les Socialistes (with 11.9%), they were fourth in the canton-wide election.

For the 2009 Conseil d'Etat election, there were a total of 5,635 registered voters of which 2,286 (40.6%) voted.

, there were 1,534 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,669 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 10.7% of the workforce coming into Versoix are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.3% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 18.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 63.9% used a private car. During that school year, there were 200 children who were in a pre-kindergarten class. The canton's school system provides two years of non-mandatory kindergarten and requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In Versoix there were 413 students in kindergarten or primary school and 65 students were in the special, smaller classes. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. There were 413 lower secondary students who attended school in Versoix. There were 605 upper secondary students from the municipality along with 90 students who were in a professional, non-university track program. An additional 596 students attended a private school.

, there were 1,082 students in Versoix who came from another municipality, while 688 residents attended schools outside the municipality. library which is found in the Bolero Building.

In Versoix there are four primary public schools:Ami-Argand, Bon Séjour, École Lachenal and Monfleury. These schools go from Kindergarten to 6th grade. There is one public Middle school, the Collège des Colombières. This school goes from 7th to 9th grade. Students from Versoix, Genthod, Bellevue, Céligny, Chavannes-des-Bois and Crassier go to this school. There are no High Schools in Versoix, so the students have to go to Geneva. Two private schools are based in Versoix - Collège du Léman and the Secondary Campus of Geneva English School.

Climate

The average annual temperature is 9&nbsp;°C (48&nbsp;°F) with an average annual rainfall of 930&nbsp;mm (36.6&nbsp;inches).

Notable people

  • Pierre-Joseph Ravel (1832 in Versoix – 1908) a Swiss civil engineer and inventor, father of the composer Maurice Ravel
  • Ignacy Mościcki (1867 – 1946 in Versoix) a Polish chemist, politician and President of Poland from 1926 to 1939
  • Sir Sultan Muhammed Shah, Aga Khan III (1877 – 1957 in Versoix) the 48th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili religion
  • Michael I of Romania (1921–2017) the last King of Romania, and Queen Anne of Romania (1923–2016) lived in Versoix for 45 years, from 1956
  • Annemie Fontana (1925 in Versoix – 2002) a Swiss sculptor and painter
  • Sébastien Chevallier (born 1987 in Versoix) a Swiss beach volleyball player, competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics

References

  • Official Website
  • Musique Municipale de Versoix and music school
  • Historical images of extreme weather conditions in Versoix - 1905