Rougemont

Rougemont lies in the Pays-d'Enhaut, in the Vaud district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut, on the Montreux-Oberland Bernois railway line. Its territory covers 48.53 square kilometres, of which 47.6% is farmland, 34.1% forest and only 2.9% buildings and infrastructure. The name comes from the hill above the village, the Rodomont, where red Liassic rock layers outcrop: this gave 'Rubeus mons' in 1104, then 'Rougemont' in French, the toponym having in a sense come down from the height to the village.

The settlement's origin lies in the founding of a Cluniac priory around 1073-1085 by the first count Wilerius (Wilair) and his sons Guillaume, Reymond and Ulric. The Romanesque church of Rougemont, built by Cluniac monks in the 11th century and altered in the 16th, is listed as a Swiss cultural property of national significance. In 1975, the burning of the chalet of the German press magnate Axel Springer went long unsolved; the writer Daniel de Roulet confessed to being its author thirty years later, in his book Un dimanche à la montagne.

Rougemont numbered 813 inhabitants on 31 December 2024, a density of 17 per square kilometre; over 2010-2023 its population fell by 11.8%, while the canton of Vaud grew by 18.6% and Switzerland by 9.4%. The village's houses carry at the top of their façades the construction date, often a biblical text, and the names of the owner and the carpenter carved into the wood; two symmetrical staircases each lead to a separate dwelling, several generations of the same family having often shared one roof. Since 2017 Rougemont has belonged to the Most Beautiful Villages of Switzerland association.

Why this place is remarkable

Rougemont takes its name from the Rodomont hill above it, whose red Liassic rock layers gave 'Rubeus mons' as early as 1104 before the toponym came down to the village. Founded around a Cluniac priory around 1073-1085, the village keeps an 11th-century Romanesque church listed as a Swiss cultural property of national significance, and Pays-d'Enhaut houses carved with the construction date and the names of owner and carpenter — a fabric recognised since 2017 by the Most Beautiful Villages of Switzerland association.

History and origin

The name Rougemont comes from the Rodomont, the hill above the village, where red Liassic rock layers outcrop and gave 'Rubeus mons' in 1104. The village formed around a Cluniac priory founded around 1073-1085 by the first count Wilerius (Wilair) and his sons Guillaume, Reymond and Ulric; its Romanesque church, built by Cluniac monks in the 11th century and altered in the 16th, is listed as a Swiss cultural property of national significance.