Lausanne

The Romans built a military camp they called Lousonna at the site of a Celtic settlement by the lake, where Vidy and Ouchy now stand, with a fort on the hill above. Insecurity in the 4th century drove the inhabitants up to the present hilltop centre, which was easier to defend, and the town that grew there came under the rule of the County of Savoy and the Bishop of Lausanne. It became the centre of the bishops' secular power and grew at the foot of the cathedral of Notre Dame, built in the 12th century.

In 1536 forces from Bern invaded and ruled Lausanne until 1798. The Bernese brought the Reformation and stripped the cathedral of its Catholic furnishings, carrying off treasures including its hanging tapestries. In 1803 the city became the capital of the new canton of Vaud, which joined the Swiss Confederation.

The 19th and 20th centuries brought railways, the port at Ouchy and a reputation as a place of refuge and inspiration: the historian Edward Gibbon and the poets Shelley and Byron lived or stayed in or near the city. In the 20th century Lausanne became a capital of international sport, hosting the International Olympic Committee, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and some 55 international sports associations; the IOC has recognised it as the "Olympic Capital" since 1994. It hosted the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics.

The cathedral is the city's emblem, and one of its customs is the lookout, who still announces the time by calling out the hour from the tower between 10 pm and 2 am, every night of the year. In July the Festival de la Cité fills the old town with performances, and Lausanne is the home of the Béjart Ballet and the Prix de Lausanne, an international competition for young ballet dancers.

The museum scene has been transformed by Plateforme 10, an arts district beside the station that brings the cantonal fine arts museum, the design museum mudac and Photo Elysée onto one site, launched in June 2022. The Collection de l'art brut, founded on Jean Dubuffet's collection of outsider art, and the Fondation de l'Hermitage are older favourites.

As the Olympic capital, the city stages a calendar of sport: the Athletissima athletics meeting, the 20 km of Lausanne road race, the Lausanne Marathon and the Tour de Romandie cycling race. With the University of Lausanne and the federal technology institute, EPFL, it has a large student population, and the Flon district is the centre of its nightlife.

Lausanne had about 140,000 people in December 2020, making it the fourth-largest city in Switzerland, and its agglomeration about 420,000 in 2019. It belongs to the Arc lémanique, the urban belt around Lake Geneva that had more than 1.3 million people in 2017 and is the fastest-growing area of the country. In 2013, 42 per cent of the city's residents were foreign nationals.

Education, health and international sport are pillars of the economy. The University of Lausanne and EPFL draw students and researchers from around the world, and the university hospital, CHUV, is a hospital centre with associated research. The Banque Cantonale Vaudoise and the insurer Vaudoise Assurances are among the large companies based in the city.

The slope shapes daily life: people live on terraces of streets between the lake and the woods of the northern edge, and the M2 metro, Switzerland's first rubber-tyred line, has made the climb part of the routine since 2008. On Wednesdays and Saturdays a farmers' market fills the centre, summer evenings are spent at Ouchy, and the Lavaux vineyards and the mountains are a short train ride away.

Lausanne's food is that of the canton of Vaud. The signature dish is papet vaudois, a filling dish of leeks and potatoes, and the Côte, the wine shore west of the city, is the home of malakoffs, fried cheese balls or sticks. Fondue — hard cheeses such as Gruyère and Vacherin melted with white wine and eaten hot with bread — is the cold-weather favourite across the Suisse romande.

From the lake come perch and fera, served in lakeshore restaurants; perch fillets are often prepared meunière style, coated in flour and fried in butter. On Wednesdays and Saturdays a large farmers' market fills the car-free streets of the centre.

Wine is central to the city's identity. Vaud is one of Switzerland's main wine cantons, and Chasselas, the most common white wine in French-speaking Switzerland, is the main grape of Lavaux, whose 830 hectares of terraces stretch for about 30 km along the shore east of the city. The terraces have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007.