Neuchâtel retraces half a million years of human history in a single museum: The Laténium, which was inaugurated in 2001. Artefacts from Prehistoric, Celtic, Roman and Medieval times. Most of these finds come from the archaeological site, La Tène, which also gave the museum its name, and they are all displayed in chronological order. A journey back in time put together by simple, yet aesthetic, museography, and it continues in the Parc de la Découverte, in front of the Laténium building. Here, you discover the splendours from different excavations in the region, as they reveal themselves on large scale. You can find a monumental Gallo-Roman barge, 20 metres long and reconstructed in Bevaix, as well as a rebuilt Celtic bridge and lacustrine house. Artefacts that are clearly historical, dating back to a period between 2500 - 800AD!

The exceptional La Tène site also gave its name to the Celtic Civilisation of the 2nd Iron Age. If the site hasn't yet handed over all its secrets, the objects along the banks of and in the Neuchâtel Lake remind us that History doesn't start with the Romans. What's even more rewarding: the sophistication and ingenuity that emanate from these objects show that, contrary to certain ideas, the Celts didn't just have a very distinct liking for war, but they were also cultured and inventive. Another reason to come and visit this gallery and discover our ancient ancestors.

Informations et contact: www.latenium.ch

The Museum charges an entrance fee, but the Parc de la Découverte is free. A visit that you can combine with a walk along the lake, starting from the Nid-du-Crô pool, for example.
Photo: CCA

This rare and precious ore, asphalt, was once extracted from Le Val-de-Travers mines and used to waterproof Louis XIV fountains and the roofs of Le Corbusier houses. Today, due to lack of profit, it has been replaced by artificial material! Underground tunnels still remain from this exceptional industrial epic. This is a true invitation to take a small trip to the centre of the Earth, something Jules Vernes would certainly not have renounced!

A mix of limestone and bitumen, asphalt, which shouldn't be confused with tar, has been appreciated since Antiquity for its elasticity, pliability, and impermeability. This ore was used as mortar and insulation before it was used to cover roads and sidewalks. At Le Val-de-Travers, the adventure started in 1711, when the Greek scientist and physician Eyrini d'Eyrinis discovered an asphalt deposit. Mining as such, the only of its type in Europe, first started in quarries before going underground in 1873. For three centuries, until 1986, some two million tonnes were extracted in this manner from the depths of the earth before being exported around the world. Visit one of the tunnel sectors, and you can still experience this touching human adventure in an underground maze of over 100 kilometers.

Informations et contact : www.gout-region.ch/mines.php
Site de la Presta, 2105 Travers. Ph + 41 (03) 32 864 90 64. Duration of the visit: 1.5 hours. Don't forget to bring your sweater, as the temperature is about 8 degrees all year!
Photo: Site de la Presta

Hundred year-old mills buried 23m deep?  Guaranteed: you can only see them at the Col-des-Roches in Le Locle Valley! These mills are proof of man's ingenuity in energy production, and they are in line with the unique hydraulic history of the Neuchâtel mountains. Le Locle Valley was actually formed at the end of the Cretaceous Period - 130 million years ago - after the Jura mountains folded. The Bied, a water body that made its way to open-air, rushed down into the earth and created a cave. The « Cul-des-Roches » - re-baptised « Col-des-Roches » in the 19th century for some discreet reason - turned into an « emposieu,» a natural well that links water sources on the surface to those underground.

So the setting was laid out for the extraordinary industrial history that was to start in 1660. In order to benefit from the « drain », the area where the water disappeared underground, the well-to-do miller Jonas Sandoz dug a cave there and built an underground mill. He put up five hydraulic wheels to grind grain and prepare linen.  This incredible adventure took a toll on his fortune, however, and the milling entrepreneur soon had to sell the mills to his creditors. After several owners, Le Locle Commune ended up buying the set-up in 1884, with the intention of managing the Bied waters.

The site quickly turned into a big garbage dump and a «promo»  slaughterhouse for the animals that didn't make it across the border. Le Locle sewers were also emptied here.  A century later, in 1973, a fraternity of a few Le Locle millers decided to save the site. After 37,000 hours of work and almost as many wheelbarrows of dug-out waste, the site was opened to the public. Since 1987 a cave and museum have been created, recounting the incredible epic of these mills. And there's even rumour that they might function again one day....

Contact and information: www.lesmoulins.ch

Fondation des Moulins souterrains du Col-des-Roches
Col 23, CH-2400 Le Locle
Ph. +41 (0)32 931 89 89
Practical Information (access, timings): click here
Fondation des Moulins souterrains du Col-des-Roches

Welcome to 1900 ! Even if it has a modest, if not austere look, the architecture of the city of La chaux-de-Fonds is nonetheless still very concentrated.

After the 1794 accidental fire that almost destroyed the entire city, the future - on a swiss scale - large city -today the third largest french speaking city after Geneva and Lausanne - acquired a grid-pattern layout. It was decreed a national heritage site by the Swiss Confederation in 1984, thanks to its typical urban planning being consistent with the Age of Enlightenment. A prosperous horological city at the turn of the 20th century, it was an active participant in all the avant-garde artistic movements that marked all the major european cities of that period: Art Nouveau and then Art Deco. A heritage that we've inherited virtually intact; a consequence, perhaps, of the deep crisis within the horological industry which has limited the « (re)constructionnistes » ambitions of the city. An invitation to explore some of these treasures.

Photo Ebel, Villa Turque
Rue du Doubs 167 (localiser)
2300 La Chaux-de-Fonds
www.ebel.com
Tel + 41 (0)32 912 31 47