History
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Roman amphitheater in Avenches.
Roman theatre in Avenches.
The roots of Avenches go back to the Celts. A tribe of Helvetians had built a settlement on the hills of Bois de Châtel, south of the later Roman settlement. Nearby the Helvetii seem to have had their capital on Mont Vully as shown in recent archaeological excavation. The canal-La Broye-which joins Lac Morat to Lac Neuchâtel is thought to be Roman in origin.
The establishment of the Roman settlement of Aventicum, which became the capital of the province, took place around 15-13 B.C. The name comes from the Helvetian spring goddess Aventia. After patronage by the emperor Vespasian, Aventicum soon developed into a blooming commercial center with over 20,000 inhabitants. The town was granted colonia status-a retirement location for legionaries- although the built up area of the town occupied only a fraction of the walled area -the walls are some 5.6 kilometers in length. The walls were clearly a statement of status rather than being a practical defensive system. Excavations have revealed the detail of the theatre and major temple complex dedicated to the "genius" of Helvetia-Roman Switzerland. One column of the temple stands as the "cigognier"- formerly a nesting site for storks. Other parts of the city still visible are the amphitheatre which includes a later tower now housing the Professor Hans Bogli museum, the baths, the walls, two of the entrances gates, a smaller temple and part of a place building. Excavated but reburied is much of the Roman city. This part of Switzerland was invaded by the Alamanni tribe in the 280's who settled the German speaking parts of Switzerland giving the area its characteristic dialect of German. Rome never really held the area again and after the fall of Rome in the 5th century, a much smaller settlement was built on the former acropolis of the by now abandoned Roman town. The theatre had a short life as a separate defended area. Throughout this period, the town remained the seat of a bishopric and had at least two churches (Saint-Martin and Saint-Symphorian). When the bishop moved his seat to Lausanne in the sixth century, the decline of the former Roman city was complete.
In 1074, the Bishop of Lausanne, Burkhard von Oltigen founded a new city on the site and named it Adventica, which became Avenche in 1518. He built the tower on the edge of the Roman amphitheatre which now houses the museum. In the 11th century, it was surrounded by a wall, and it received city rights in 1259.
A German name for the town did not appear until the 13th century, and it is neither a translation of the Latin, nor a Germanized form of the French. In 1266 the form Wibilsburg appears, and then Wipelspurg (1302), Wibelspurg (1458), Wiblispurg (1476), Wiflispurg (1548), and Wiflisburg (1577). This is derived from the personal name Wibili.
Avenches is first mentioned in 1518 as Avenche.
The town made a treaty in 1239 with Fribourg and one in 1353 with Murten.
Ernest Failloubaz flight of 7 October 1910
With the Bernese conquest of Vaud in 1536, Avenches came under Bernese domination. In 1798, it became part of the Helvetic canton of Fribourg. In 1801, the population pushed for incorporation into the canton of Léman in the Helvetic Republic. With the mediation of Napoleon in 1803, Avenches became part of the canton of Vaud and capital of its district.
In 1826 a colony of Jews from Alsace settled in Avenches. They were primarily horse traders and built a synagogue in 1865. When economic circumstances worsened at the end of the 19th century the Jews left the city and the synagogue, which was no longer in use, was torn down in 1954.
An airfield was built on the flat land north of the municipality in 1910 where Ernest Failloubaz did the first flight in Switzerland of an aircraft built and flown by a Swiss citizen. During World War I, it served as a military airfield. When the military airport in Payerne was built in 1921, the field in Avenches was closed.
Excavation of the Roman town began in the 19th century but it was a well-known location in the Grand Tour and Joseph William Mallord Turner made a drawing of the "Cigognier", which shows the old town behind. Archaeology benefitted curiously from the first and second world wars when foreigners interned in Switzerland, and local unemployed, were engaged to excavate the main buildings of the Roman city and to renovate and open to the public the theatre, "Cigognier" and the gates and one tower of the wall. With the advent of the national highway scheme a programme of rescue archaeology was set up under the association "Pro Aventico" under the remarkably capable direction of Professor Hans Bogli, after whom the Roman museum has since been named. Work uncovered a remarkable palace building, much of the centre of the Roman town, and outside the walls a canal and roadway leading from the nearby lake and cemeteries and aqueducts outside the line of the Roman walls.
Near to the line of the Roman walls, and benefitting from use of stone from the walls is the small Romanesque church in Donatyre which possesses excellent early fresco paintings.
