Fire as a founding act… The towns of Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds celebrate the 15th on June 29 and 30e anniversary of their inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The fires that struck the towns in the 18th and 19th centuries gave rise to the towns we know today. It is this theme of “all fire, all flame” that will serve as the common thread for the weekend’s festivities.
In 1994, 200 years after the fire that ravaged the village, La Chaux-de-Fonds set up a “Fire and Place” trail. A circuit that leads visitors to discover buildings that had escaped the flames. For the 15the anniversary of the UNESCO listing, the City has decided to bring the walk and its signage up to date. The graphics and texts of the brochures which adorn the buildings concerned have been revised. Some buildings were removed from the route due to their distance from the heart of the old village and therefore the fire.
From rue du Progrès to rue de la Chapelle via rue du Grenier and rue du Versoix, the 16 buildings on the “fire & place” route are not necessarily protected properties, they “show a place where the fire stopped”, explains Sylvie Pipoz (delegate for heritage promotion for the City of La Chaux-de-Fonds).
The updated “fire & place” route will be officially inaugurated this Sunday, June 30.
A podcast entitled “Angle(s) droit(s)”, dedicated to the heritage of La Chaux-de-Fonds and its surroundings, is also making its appearance. The first two parts are devoted to the fire of 1794 and to watchmaking urban planning. They offer listeners an unprecedented immersion in history, between archives and testimonies.
As part of the Watch Town Planning Festival, visitors are invited to immerse themselves in archive images and explore the oldest streets and buildings of the watchmaking metropolis and the Mother Commune.
The event begins this Saturday at 2 p.m. in Le Locle. It continues this Sunday from 10 a.m. in La Chaux-de-Fonds. /cwi
