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Montreux
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Montreux (môNtrö'), resort area (1990 pop. 22,917), on the northeast shore of the Lake of Geneva, Vaud canton, W Switzerland. It is composed of the communes of Le Châtelard, Les Planches, and Veytaux, which were merged in 1962. Montreux is a leading resort on the Lake of Geneva, and lies on a railway line from Geneva and France to Italy. The Montreux Jazz Festival is held there.
| Dialing Code: The telephone dialing code for: Montreux, Switzerland |
The country code is: 41
The city code is: 21
| Wikipedia: Montreux |
For other uses, see Montreux (disambiguation).
| Montreux | ||||||||||
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| Population | 23,800 (2007[update]) | |||||||||
| - Density | 713 /km2 (1,846 /sq mi) | |||||||||
| Area | 33.40 km2 (12.90 sq mi) | |||||||||
| Elevation | 390 m (1,280 ft) | |||||||||
| Postal code | 1820 | |||||||||
| SFOS number | 5886 | |||||||||
| Mayor | Pierre Salvi SPS/PSS | |||||||||
| Surrounded by | Blonay, Haut-Intyamon (FR), La Tour-de-Peilz, Noville, Veytaux, Villeneuve | |||||||||
| Twin towns | Wiesbaden (Germany), Menton (France), Chiba City (Japan) | |||||||||
| Website | www.montreux.ch Profile, SFSO statistics |
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  Montreux
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Montreux is a municipality in the district of Vevey in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.
It is located on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps and has (as of December 2007[update]) a population of 23,800.[1]
Contents |
History and geography
Montreux lies on the north east shore of Lake Geneva at the fork in the Roman road from Italy over the Simplon Pass, where the roads to the Roman capital of Aventicum and the road into Gaul through Besançon separated. This made it an important settlement already in Roman times.
In the 12th century, viticulture was introduced to the region, and the sunny slopes of the lake from Lavaux to Montreux became an important wine-growing region.
The region was subject to various princes, most notably the princes of Savoy from the south side of the lake. They unified the territory which comprises the present canton of Vaud and were generally popular sovereigns.
After the Burgundian Wars in the 15th century, the Swiss in Berne occupied the region without resistance, an indication of the weakness of the princes of Savoy. The Reformation made the region around Montreux and Vevey an attractive haven for Huguenots from Italy, who brought their artisanal skills and set up workshops and businesses.
In 1798, Napoleon liberated the region from the Bernese. In the 19th century, the tourist industry became a major commercial outlet, with the grand hotels of Montreux attracting the rich and cultured from Europe and America.
Culture
- It was a haven for Catherine Barkley and Lt. Frederic Henry in Ernest Hemingway's classic, A Farewell to Arms.
Montreux hosts several noteworthy festivals:
- Freddie Mercury's Montreux Memorial Day, annually first week-end of September since 2003.[2]
- The Montreux Jazz Festival, annually in July since 1967. It is held at the Montreux Music & Convention Centre, built in 1973 and has become a global phenomenon.
- The Golden Rose Festival, annually in spring (1961-2003), which awarded the Golden Rose of Montreux, an international award for television.
- The Golden Award of Montreux, annually in April, is traditionally, since 1989, the first international advertising and multimedia Competition in Europe - starting the global season for awarding creative excellence.
Montreux boasts one of the most beautiful walks along the lake, stretching from Villeneuve all the way towards Vevey. The main square of the town, Place du Marché, features a statue of Freddie Mercury facing Lake Geneva. Some of the numerous small villages around Montreux include La Tour-de-Peilz, Clarens, Territet, and Villeneuve. The Chateau of Chillon provides a marvelous view of the entire Lake of Geneva and can be easily accessed via bus, walk or boat.
Deep Purple made Montreux famous with their song "Smoke on the Water", which tells the events of 1971, when a Frank Zappa fan with a flare gun set the Montreux Casino on fire. The destroyed Casino was reopened in 1975.
| “ | We all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline / To make records with a mobile - We didn't have -much time / Frank Zappa & the Mothers were at the best place around / But some stupid with a flare gun burned the -place to the ground / Smoke on the water, fire in the sky | ” |
Montreux is the home of Mountain Studios, the recording studio used by several artists. "Bonzo's Montreux" by Led Zeppelin is named after the city where the drums session of John Bonham was recorded in 1976. In 1978, the band Queen bought the studio. It was then sold to Queen producer David Richards. In 2002 the Mountain Studios was converted into a bar as part of a complete renovation of the studio. David Richards has left Montreux to settle down somewhere else. Queen also appeared in 1984 and in 1986 at the Golden Rose Festival and Queen guitarist Brian May appeared in 2001 at the Jazz Festival. Montreux was also the subject of the 1995 Queen single A Winter's Tale on the album Made in Heaven, one of Freddie's last songs before his death on November 24, 1991. The album cover features the statue of Mercury beside the lake.
In 1990, the Wakker Prize for the development and preservation of its architectural heritage was awarded to Montreux.[3]
The Federation International de Roller Skating was founded in Montreux in 1924.
Notable residents
- Ian Anderson - (born 1947), Scottish musician, frontman of Jethro Tull
- Sergei Aleksandrovich Buturlin – (1872-1938), Russian ornithologist
- A. J. Cronin – (1896-1981), Scottish novelist
- Laurent Dufaux – (born 1969), Swiss cyclist
- Paul-André Gaillard – (born 1922), Swiss composer and orchestra conductor
- Bill Gates – (born 1955), American business magnate
- Jean Villard Gilles – (1895-1982), Swiss singer-songwriter
- Barbara Hendricks – (born 1948), American-born opera singer
- Patrick Juvet – (born 1950), Swiss singer-songwriter
- Tony Lewis – (born 1956), American singer-songwriter
- Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim - (1867-1951), Finnish statesman
- Freddie Mercury – (1946-1991), British musician
- Vladimir Nabokov – (1899–1977), Russian-American novelist
- Claude Nobs – (born 1939), Swiss founder of Montreux Jazz Festival
- Luc Plamondon – (born 1942), French-Canadian lyricist
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau – (1712-1778), Swiss philosopher and writer
- Emil Steinberger – (born 1933), Swiss comedian, writer, and actor
- Igor Stravinsky – (1882-1971), Russian composer
- Pyotr Iliych Tchaikovsky – (1840-1893), Russian composer
- Shania Twain – (born 1965), Canadian singer-songwriter
- Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg - (1884-1966), Lithuanian Rosh Yeshiva of the Hildesheimer Seminary in Berlin and author of the four-volume responsa Sridei Aish
- Ardeshir Zahedi - (born 1928), former Iranian foreign minister and son-in-law of Shah of Iran
Weather
| Weather data for Montreux-Clarens | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 4.5 (40) |
6.2 (43) |
9.6 (49) |
13.9 (57) |
18.2 (65) |
21.8 (71) |
24.9 (77) |
23.9 (75) |
20.5 (69) |
15.2 (59) |
9.3 (49) |
5.5 (42) |
14.5 (58) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 1.5 (35) |
2.8 (37) |
5.4 (42) |
9.1 (48) |
13.3 (56) |
16.7 (62) |
19.3 (67) |
18.6 (65) |
15.5 (60) |
10.9 (52) |
5.8 (42) |
2.4 (36) |
10.1 (50) |
| Average low °C (°F) | -0.8 (31) |
0.3 (33) |
2.4 (36) |
5.5 (42) |
9.5 (49) |
12.8 (55) |
15.1 (59) |
14.7 (58) |
12 (54) |
8 (46) |
3.3 (38) |
0 (32) |
6.9 (44) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 90 (3.54) |
86 (3.39) |
104 (4.09) |
109 (4.29) |
119 (4.69) |
157 (6.18) |
130 (5.12) |
158 (6.22) |
117 (4.61) |
104 (4.09) |
114 (4.49) |
91 (3.58) |
1,379 (54.29) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 11.6 | 10.6 | 12.4 | 11.9 | 13.8 | 13.1 | 10.3 | 12 | 9.5 | 8.9 | 11 | 11.3 | 136.4 |
| Source: MeteoSchweiz [4] 8 May 2009 | |||||||||||||
Gallery
 Freddie Mercury statue at sunset in Montreux. |
 Château de Chillon near Montreux. |
 Southwest view over the Lake Geneva from Montreux. |
References
- ^ Bundesamt fur Statistik (Federal Department of Statistics) (2008). "Bilanz der ständigen Wohnbevölkerung (Total) nach Bezirken und Gemeinden". http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/01/02/blank/key/raeumliche_verteilung/kantone__gemeinden.html. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
- ^ "Freddie Mercury: the show must go on!" (in French). Swissinfo. 2003-08-31. http://www.swissinfo.org/fre/a_la_une/detail/Freddie_Mercury_the_show_must_go_on.html?siteSect=105&sid=4185155&cKey=1179732973000&ty=st. Retrieved 2008-08-19. "Et voilà qu’en cette année 2003, c’est carrément un 'Memorial Day' qui est organisé en l’honneur de Faroukh Bulsara, né en 1946 à Zanzibar, et devenu star planétaire sous le nom de Freddie Mercury."
- ^ Swiss Heritage Society, Wakker Prize (German) accessed 9 May 2009
- ^ "Temperature and Percipitation Average Values-Table, 1961-1990" (in German, French, Italian). Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss. http://www.meteoswiss.admin.ch/web/de/klima/klima_schweiz/tabellen.html. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008) |
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Montreux |
- Montreuxmusic.com
- www.montreux.ch portal
- Commune de Montreux (French) official website
- Montreux in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- Montreux-Vevey Tourist Office
- Montreux travel guide from Wikitravel
- Official site of the Montreux Jazz Festival
- Freddie Mercury and Queen items for sale in Montreux
- Webcam (this is broken at the moment)
- Montreux Christmas Market
- Deep Purple's Ian Gillan write-up on the Flare Gun incident and subsequent song
- "Mr. Nabokov is not in his room" - Doron Rosenblum's pilgimage to Montreux, Ha'aretz, Sept. 18., 2009
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Mentioned in
- Drinkin' TNT 'n' Smokin' Dynamite (1982 Album by Junior Wells)
- Roy Eldridge Four (1977 Album by Roy Eldridge)
- Blue Montreux (1978 Album by Blue Montreux)
- King Sunny Ade: Montreux '83 (1983 Music Film)
- Lou Reed: Live at Montreux 2000 (Music Film)
- Sun Ra: Montreux and Lugano (Music Film)
- Mink Deville: Live at Montreux 1982 (1982 Music Film)
- Sign Language (1987 Album by Montreux)
- David Crosby & CPR: Through the Music (1998 Music Film)
- Naturally 7: Live at Montreux 2007 (Music Film)
- Montreux Jazz Festival (festival, Switzerland – in music)
- Blues, Blues, Blues (1992 Album by Piano Red)
- Mongo at Montreux (1971 Album by Mongo Santamaria)
- Clarens (city, Switzerland)
