The Temple of La Chaux-du-Milieu

5 November 2020

The Valley of the Brévine was already inhabited in the 14th century. The Count of Neuchâtel called the settlement ‘Calvum de Escobon’ in 1310. The name transformed to La Chaux d’Ecoublon, La Tschaux du Meta, and eventually La Chaux-du-Milieu.

Migrants from the growing town of Le Locle moved to the valley in the sixteenth century. The (lucrative) trade between Franche-Comté (owned by the Habsburgs) and the cities of the Swiss Confederation (Eidgenossenschaft) passed through the valley.

After the Reformation, however, the political border became a religious border. The County of Neuchâtel adopted the Protestant faith in 1530; the Franche-Comté remained Catholic.

The cantons of the Eidgenossenschaft governed Neuchâtel from 1512 to 1529, although the Catholic French dynasty of d’Orléans-Longueville owned the County. La Chaux-du-Milieu’s beautiful church (le temple) was built in 1716.