Lausanne, The Olympic capital, Switzerland | 4K UHD (Kan 2024)
Lausanne, hovedstaden i kanton Vaud, vestlige Schweiz, på den nordlige bred af Genèvesøen (Lac Léman); bygget på de sydlige skråninger af Jorat-højderne, varierer dens højde fra 378 m til Ouchy, dens søhavn, til 222 m ved Le Signal, dets højeste punkt. To korte vandløb, Flon og Louve, som tidligere flød gennem centrum af byen, er blevet udfyldt, hvilket efterlader adskillige depressioner; som et resultat har Lausanne et kuperet udseende, bygget på mange forbindelsesniveauer.
Quiz
Verdensbyer
Hvad er den største by i Tyrkiet?
Det gamle keltiske lausonium, eller Lausonna, var oprindeligt på bredden af søen sydvest for den nuværende by. Under invasionen af Alemanni (ca. 379) tog indbyggerne tilflugt i bakkerne ovenfor og byggede en bygning på stedet for det nuværende Cité-distrikt. I 590 etablerede biskop Marius fra Aventicum (nu Avenches) sit bispedømme der. Bosættelsen sluttede sig til sidst med den burgundiske bosættelse Bourg på tværs af Flon og med en koloni omkring kirken Saint-Laurent mod vest. Biskopperne, fyrster for det hellige romerske imperium fra det 12. århundrede, bevarede deres store tidsmæssige magter indtil 1536, da Lausanne med resten af Pays de Vaud blev erobret af Bernerne, der indførte den protestantiske reformation. Bernese besættelsen varede indtil 1798,og Lausanne blev hovedstad i den nye Vaud-kanton Napoleons Helvetic Republic i 1803.
Two major international treaties were signed at Lausanne: between Italy and Turkey in 1912 and between Turkey and the Allies of World War I in 1923. In 1932 a conference was held in Lausanne to liquidate reparations payments by Germany to the Allied powers. In 1964 it was the site of the Swiss National Exhibition, held every 25 years in a different Swiss city.
Historic buildings include the early Gothic Cathedral of Notre-Dame, consecrated in 1275 by Pope Gregory X in the presence of the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf I of Habsburg; the Saint-François Church, erected during the same period but partly rebuilt in the late 14th century; and the city hall (rebuilt 1674). The castle, now housing the Historical Museum of the Ancient Bishopric, is the only vestige of the 13th-century residences of the bishops. The Château Saint-Maire (1397–1431), the former bishop’s castle, is now the seat of the cantonal government. More recent landmarks are the Palais de Rumine (1903), the principal building of the university, which also houses the cantonal museums, and the federal court of justice (1927), seat of the Swiss Supreme Court.
Lausanne rivals Geneva as the intellectual and cultural centre of French Switzerland. Its university (1891) originated as a theological academy in 1537. The city was the birthplace of the noted Swiss literary figures Benjamin Constant de Rebecque, Alexandre Vinet, Juste Olivier, and Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz and of the philosopher Charles Secrétan. Many famous European men of letters, including Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and Edward Gibbon, resided there.
The headquarters of the International Olympic Committee are at Lausanne, and an Olympic Museum, surrounded by a public park, opened in 1993. Lausanne is also the site of the Federal Polytechnic Institute (founded 1853, present status 1969) and of the annual national fair Comptoir Suisse.
A junction for railway lines from Geneva, Fribourg, Bern, and Vallorbe (for Paris), Lausanne gained greatly in commercial importance when the opening of the Simplon Tunnel in 1906 placed it on the great international route from Paris to Milan. Principal industries include the manufacture of machinery, precision instruments, and metal products, along with printing and food processing. The city is also an important tourist and convention centre. Pop. (2007 est.) city, 118,049; urban agglom., 313,074.
