Yvorne

In 1584 a rockslide destroyed much of the village's houses; rebuilding took place further east, between 1607 and 1608. A vineyard was planted on the rockslide debris itself, which gave it its dialect name, L'Ovaille. The commune today covers 12.2 km², of which 47.2% is farmland, 39.3% is forest and only 9.9% is housing and infrastructure according to the 2013-2018 survey; it brings together the village of Yvorne and the hamlets of Versvey, Vers-Morey and Vers-Monthey.

At the place called Truchefardel, a quarry of jaspered marble — grey, red and yellow veined with black and white — was worked from the 17th century by the Doret family of marble-cutters, who built a marble saw there in 1756. The stone was exported across the Vaud region as well as to Bern, Geneva and Lyon; in 1674 it dressed the portal columns of the Palud town hall in Lausanne. Resumed from 1905 to 1921 by the Société des carrières d'Arvel under the names 'Swiss Red' and 'Swiss Grey', it supplied in 1913-1914 the material for the Swiss headwall of the Mont-d'Or tunnel, before closing in 1921.

The village's name, attested from 1025-1031 as Evurna, most likely derives from the Latin personal name Eburna. The commune came under Bernese rule in 1475 and joined the district of Aigle in 1798; the Maison Blanche, built in 1573 and rebuilt in 1609 by Antoine d'Erlach, served as the summer residence of the governors of Aigle. The present Reformed church dates from 1835-1838, the work of architect Jean Gunthert; Yvorne has belonged to the association Switzerland's Most Beautiful Villages since 2017.

The commune counted 1,109 inhabitants on 31 December 2024, up 12.5% between 2010 and 2023. In 2010 a merger project with Aigle and Leysin, accepted by the residents of Yvorne and Leysin, was rejected by those of Aigle by 43 votes in the ballot of 26 September 2010.

Why this place is remarkable

Yvorne owes its vines to a disaster: the village rebuilt after the 1584 rockslide planted its vines on the very debris that had struck it, giving its terroir the name L'Ovaille. A few steps away, the Truchefardel quarry exported its jaspered marble as far as Lausanne's town hall, before closing in 1921.

History and origin

The 1584 rockslide destroyed much of the village, rebuilt further east in 1607-1608; the vines planted on the debris gave the place its dialect name, L'Ovaille. The jaspered marble quarry of Truchefardel, opened in the 17th century, was worked until 1921, with an industrial revival from 1905 to 1921 under the Société des carrières d'Arvel.