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Information about Lausanne

Coordinates:
Lausanne
Canton Vaud
DistrictLausanne
Coordinates
Population128,302   (2007)
Area km ( sq mi)
Elevation m ( ft)
375 m - 900 m
Postal code1000-1018
SFOS number5586
Mayor (list)Daniel Brélaz (as of 2007) Green
DemonymLes Lausannois
LocalitiesLe Chalet-à-Gobet, Montblesson, Montheron, Ouchy, Vernand-Dessous, Vernand-Dessus, Vers-chez-les-Blanc
Surrounded by
(view map)		Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Ecublens, Epalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), Maxilly-sur-Léman (FR-74), Montpreveyres, Morrens, Neuvecelle (FR-74), Prilly, Pully, Renens, Romanel-sur-Lausanne, Saint-Sulpice, Savigny
Twin towns
Websitewww.lausanne.ch
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Lausanne [zoom
(Switzerland)]]
Lausanne (pronounced [loˈzan]) is a city in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, situated on the shores of Lake Geneva (French: Lac Léman), and facing Évian-les-Bains (France) and with the Jura mountains to its north. Lausanne is located some 50 km (31 mi) northeast of Geneva. It is the capital of the canton of Vaud and of the district of Lausanne. The headquarters of the International Olympic Committee are located in Lausanne. It lies in the middle of a wine-making region.

History

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View of Laussane (Lausanna) - A 1837 woodcut print on cover of a September edition of the portuguese journal "O Panorama" (From the Dr. Nuno Carvalho de Sousa Private Collections - Lisbon)
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View of Lake Geneva and the French Alps
The Romans built a military camp, which they called Lousanna, at the site of a Celtic settlement, near the lake where currently are Vidy and Ouchy; on the hill above was a fort called 'Lausodunon' or 'Lousodunon' (The 'y' suffix is common to many place names of Roman origin in the region (e.g.) Prilly, Pully, Lutry, etc).

After the fall of the Roman Empire, insecurity forced the transfer of Lausanne to its current center, a hilly, easier to defend site. The city which emerged from the camp was ruled by the Dukes of Savoy and the Bishop of Lausanne. Then it came under Berne from 1536 to 1798 and a number of its cultural treasures, including the hanging tapestries in the Cathedral, were permanently removed. Lausanne has made a number of requests to recover them. During the Napoleonic Wars, its status changed. In 1803, it became the capital of a newly formed Swiss canton, Vaud under which it joined the Swiss Federation. From the 1950s to 1970s a large number of Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese immigrated, settling mostly in the industrial district of Renens and transforming the local diet. The city has been traditionally quiet but in the late 1960s and early 1970s there were a series of mainly youth demonstrations confronted by the police that gave rise to the motto 'Lausanne bouge' (Lausanne is getting animated). In a rare showmanship of anti-authoritarianism, the youth responded by ascribing to the word flic (literally "cop") the term, Fédération Lausannoise des Imbéciles Casqués (Lausanne Federation of Helmeted Imbeciles). The next vigorous demonstrations took place to protest against the high cinema prices and since then the city has returned to its very sleepy self. By the 1990s, it supposedly had one of the highest rates of AIDS in Europe.

A surprising decision for the city housing the IOC is that in a 1992 referendum, its citizens rejected holding the Winter Olympic Games. The dignitaries of the city were so convinced that the vote would be 'yes' that they had prepared a champagne celebration.

Geography

The most important geographical feature of the area surrounding Lausanne is Lake Geneva (Lac Léman in French). Lausanne is built on the southern slope of the Swiss plateau, with a difference in elevation of about 500 meters (1,600 ft) between the lakeshore at Ouchy and its northern edge bordering Le Mont-sur-Lausanne and Epalinges. Lausanne boasts a dramatic panorama over the lake.

In addition to its generally southward-sloping layout, the center of the city is the site of an ancient river Flon, which has been covered since the 19th century. The former river forms a gorge running through the middle of the city south of the old city centre, generally following the course of the present Rue Centrale, with several bridges crossing the depression to connect the adjacent neighborhoods. Due to the large differences in elevation, visitors should make a note as to which plane of elevation they are on and where they want to go, lest they find themselves tens of meters below or above the street which they are trying to travel on. The name Flon is also used for the Metro station located in the gorge.

Lausanne is located at the limit between the extensive wine-growing regions of Lavaux (to the east) and la Côte (to the west).

The population of the greater Lausanne area (grand Lausanne) is about 250,000 (2005 est.).

Transport

See also: Lausanne Metro
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1/10 scale model of the new m2 metro in Lausanne, of the same type as the Paris line 14. A front view of the m2 is also available.

Public transport

Public transport in Lausanne includes buses and metros (operated by TL (French)), nationwide and regional train lines (CFF, LEB (French)), and boats (CGN (French)). The majority of urban public transport in Lausanne is by trolleybus.

Lausanne will become the first city in Switzerland to have a rubber-tyred metro system, with the m2 Line which will open in 2008. The rolling stock will be a shorter version of the one used on Paris Métro Line 14.

Roadways

Lausanne is connected to the A1 motorway on its east side (Geneva - Zurich axis) and to the A9 on its north and east side (transit with Italy and France), the forking point between these two motorways being at the north-west side of the city.

Education

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Palais de Rumine, place de la Riponne
Lausanne enjoys some world class higher education establishements.

Culture

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Cathedral Notre-Dame of Lausanne
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Waterfront view of Ouchy, just south of Lausanne
The Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne provide a diverse and rich musical life. The latter has been under the direction of Michel Corboz for many years.

In January, the Prix de Lausanne, the famous dance competition takes place at the Théâtre de Beaulieu over a one-week period. The event attracts dancers and some of the big names in dance from all over the world.

Each July, the "Festival de la Cité" (city festival) is held in the old part of town. There are also film and music festivals, such as the Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival and the Bach Festival, "Le Festival et Concours Bach de Lausanne", which follows "La Nuit de Musées" (museum's night) in the fall season.

Lausanne is also the home of the Béjart Ballet.

Museums

Lausanne is also the site of many museums:

Music

  • Contemporary composer Leonardo Balada's Symphony No. 4 is subtitled 'Lausanne'.
  • Le RomandieLe Romandie, live local and international bands. Mostly rock'n roll.
  • Les DocksLes Docks, live local and international bands.

Sports

Sporting activities are very popular in Lausanne, with water sports available on the nearby lake and mountaineering in the nearby mountains. Cycling is also a popular pastime, with the vineyards in the surrounding hills providing spectacular views and challenging routes. There is an annual athletic contest (Athletissima (French)), road running through the city (the 20 km de Lausanne (French)), the Tour de Romandie road cycling race, marathon (website) and triathlon competition, among other sports events. The two most important sports are football (soccer) and Ice Hockey.

Notable people

Lausanne is the birthplace of: Notable residents:

Photos of Lausanne

Photos of Lausanne, taken in June 2001:


City

City

Lake Geneva

View of Lake Geneva from waterfront

Marina

Vineyards of Lavaux

Old town

Palais de Beaulieu

Railway station

Bel-Air tower


See also

External links

 •  • [ e]
Municipalities in the district of Lausanne, Switzerland


Capitals of Swiss cantons
Aarau (Aargau) - Altdorf (Uri) - Appenzell (Appenzell Innerrhoden) - Basel (Basel-City) - Bellinzona (Ticino) - Berne (Berne) - Chur (Grisons) - Delmont (Jura) - Frauenfeld (Thurgau) - Fribourg (Fribourg) - Geneva (Geneva) - Glarus (Glarus) - Herisau/Trogen (Appenzell Ausserrhoden) - Lausanne (Vaud) - Liestal (Basel-Land) - Lucerne (Lucerne) - Neuchtel (Neuchtel) - St. Gallen (St. Gallen) - Sarnen (Obwalden) - Schaffhausen (Schaffhausen) - Schwyz (Schwyz) - Sion (Valais) - Solothurn (Solothurn) - Stans (Nidwalden) - Zug (Zug) - Zurich (Zurich)
geographic coordinate system enables every location on the earth to be specified by the three coordinates of a spherical coordinate system aligned with the spin axis of the Earth.
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cantons of Switzerland are the states of the federal state of Switzerland. Historically each canton in the historical confederation was a sovereign state, with its own borders, army and currency until the current federal structure was established in 1848.
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The Canton of Vaud (pronounced [vo]; French: Vaud) is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in the southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne.
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Switzerland each Canton is completely free to decide its own internal organisation. Therefore there exists a variety of structures and terminology for the subnational entities between Canton and Municipality, loosely termed districts (i.e.
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Lausanne is a district in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. The seat of the district is the city of Lausanne.

The following municipalities are located within the district:
  • Belmont-sur-Lausanne
  • Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne
  • Crissier
  • Epalinges

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geographic coordinate system enables every location on the earth to be specified by the three coordinates of a spherical coordinate system aligned with the spin axis of the Earth.
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population is the collection of people or organisms of a particular species living in a given geographic area or mortality, and migration, though the field encompasses many dimensions of population change including the family (marriage and divorce), public health, work and the
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Area is a physical quantity expressing the size of a part of a surface. The term Surface area is the summation of the areas of the exposed sides of an object.

Units

Units for measuring surface area include:
square metre = SI derived unit

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Distances shorter than 107 m

Conversions

10,000 km is
  • 6,215 miles.
  • side of a square of area 100,000,000 km²
  • radius of a circle of area 314,159,265 km²

Nature


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elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, often the mean sea level. Elevation, or geometric height, is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude or geopotential height
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This page is a summary of the postal codes of Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Format of postal codes (PLZ)

The Swiss postal codes are assigned geographically, from west to east.
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This is a list of mayors of Lausanne, Switzerland. The mayor of Lausanne (syndic de Lausanne) presides the municipal council (municipalité), the city's executive.
  • 1922-1924: Arthur Freymond (1879-1970)
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Political parties in Switzerland lists political parties in Switzerland. Switzerland has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.
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A demonym or gentilic is a word that denotes the members of a people or the inhabitants of a place. In English, the name of a people's language is often the same as this word, e.g., the "French" (language or people).
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Ouchy is a commune, port, and popular lakeside resort near the city of Lausanne in Switzerland, located at the south of the city, at the edge of the Lake Léman (Lake Geneva).
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The following is a list of the municipalities in Switzerland, listed alphabetically (from Aadorf to Zwischbergen).

 

Municipalities of Switzerland
Municipality Canton
Aadorf Thurgau
Aarau Aargau
Aarberg Berne
Aarburg Aargau
Aarwangen Berne
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Bottens is a municipality in the district of Echallens in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.


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Bretigny-sur-Morrens is a municipality in the district of Echallens in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.


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Chavannes-près-Renens is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, located in the district of Morges.

External links

  • http://www.chavannes1022.ch/ Official site


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Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne is a municipality in the district of Lausanne in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

It is a suburb of the city of Lausanne.

Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne hosts the headquarters of Kudelski SA, a company founded by Stefan Kudelski who invented the Nagra
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Crissier is a municipality in the district of Lausanne in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

It is a suburb of the city of Lausanne.

External links

  • http://www.crissier.

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Cugy is a municipality in the district of Echallens in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.


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Ecublens is a municipality in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, located in the district of Morges. It is a suburb of Lausanne.

The first written record of Ecublens appears around the year 960, when it was called Scubilingis, in a document recording the property of the
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Epalinges is a municipality in the district of Lausanne in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

It is a suburb of the city of Lausanne.

Epalinges hosts the ISREC, the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research
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Évian-les-Bains or Évian is a commune of France, in the northern part of the Haute-Savoie département, on the shores of Lake Geneva, opposite to Lausanne, Switzerland. It has a population of about 7,300 people.
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Froideville is a municipality in the district of Echallens in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.


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Jouxtens-Mézery is a municipality in the district of Lausanne in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

It is a suburb of the city of Lausanne.

External links

  • http://www.jouxtens-mezery.

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Le Mont-sur-Lausanne is a municipality in the district of Lausanne in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

It is a suburb of the city of Lausanne.


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Montpreveyres is a municipality in the district of Oron in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.


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