Montreux

The shore around Montreux was long a string of villages rather than a town. Under Bernese rule, from 1536 to 1798, it belonged to the Bailiwick of Chillon, renamed the Bailiwick of Vevey in 1735, and the Reformation made the area around Montreux and Vevey a haven for Huguenots from Italy, who brought artisanal skills and set up workshops and businesses. Chillon Castle, on its rock in the lake at Veytaux, had been a stronghold of the House of Savoy before the Bernese took it in 1536; Byron's poem The Prisoner of Chillon, based on François Bonivard, a political prisoner from Geneva released that year, later made it famous.

From the 19th century the mild climate turned the shore into the Swiss Riviera, and Montreux became an important tourist destination. Grand hotels, railway stations and a funicular were built; cog railways climbed to Glion, Caux and the Rochers de Naye. For a long time there were three independent municipalities sharing a central authority, each with its own taxes and mayor; in 1962 Le Châtelard and Les Planches merged to form the present Montreux, while Veytaux stayed independent.

The town has a place in diplomatic history: the Montreux Convention, which still governs the Turkish Straits, was signed here in July 1936, and in January 2014 a United Nations peace conference on Syria met in Montreux. In 2006 the old Vevey district was dissolved and Montreux became part of the new district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut.

Music defines modern Montreux. The Montreux Jazz Festival has been held every July since 1967 and now runs for about two weeks. In December 1971 a Frank Zappa fan with a flare gun set the casino on fire, and Deep Purple, who had come to record there, wrote Smoke on the Water about the night; a monument on the lake shore carries the band's name, the title and the riff. The casino reopened in 1975.

Freddie Mercury's statue on the Place du Marché faces the lake; Mountain Studios, rebuilt inside the casino, recorded the festival's live performances and since 2013 has been the exhibit Queen: The Studio Experience, and the free Freddie Celebration Days are held around his birthday on 5 September. Writers and artists have drawn on the shore since Byron's day.

Montreux is also a town of schools: international and boarding schools in Clarens and Territet, and private hospitality schools in Caux and Glion. Every year a Christmas market runs for several weeks over the holiday period.

Montreux had about 26,000 people in December 2020, and the Vevey–Montreux agglomeration about 85,000 in 2019. In 2008 some 44 per cent of residents were foreign nationals.

Tourism has shaped the town since the 19th century, health care and education are large employers, and the town is also a place where many people commute in and out: in 2000 almost as many workers left the municipality each day as arrived, and about half the working population drove to work. The heritage of the resort years is everywhere, and the whole urban village of Territet and Veytaux, as well as the areas of Caux, Montreux and the Villas Dubochet, are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Life is lived on two levels: the flat lakefront of quays, flowerbeds and promenades, and the steep slopes above, laced with railways and roads, where villages such as Glion and Caux look down on the water. The lakeside walk from Villeneuve to Vevey is used by residents and visitors alike, on foot and on wheels.

Montreux eats the food of the canton of Vaud. Papet vaudois, a filling dish of leeks and potatoes, is the cantonal classic, and malakoffs, fried cheese balls or sticks, come from La Côte, the wine shore west of Lausanne. Fondue, several hard cheeses such as Gruyère and Vacherin melted with white wine and eaten hot with bread, is the winter favourite.

Perch and fera from Lake Geneva are served in lakeshore restaurants, and perch fillets are often prepared meunière style, coated in flour and fried in butter. The covered market hall, the Marché couvert, is listed among the town's heritage sites of national significance. Papet vaudois is often considered the national dish of Vaud, its leeks and potatoes sharing the white and green of the cantonal flag.

Wine comes from just along the shore. Chasselas, the most common white wine of French-speaking Switzerland, is the main grape of the Lavaux terraces east of Lausanne; in the Valais the same wine is known as Fendant, and in Geneva as Perlan.