Bex is a municipality in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the district of Aigle. It is a few miles south of its sister town municipality of Aigle.
Bex is first mentioned in 574 as in Baccis.
Bex is the site of a famous salt mine.
The salt deposits in Bex were the first that were discovered in Switzerland. In the 15th Century a salt source is mentioned in the area, but it was not until 1554 that a large deposit was discovered in Panex. ...
More
Bex is a municipality in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the district of Aigle. It is a few miles south of its sister town municipality of Aigle.
Bex is first mentioned in 574 as in Baccis.
Bex is the site of a famous salt mine.
The salt deposits in Bex were the first that were discovered in Switzerland. In the 15th Century a salt source is mentioned in the area, but it was not until 1554 that a large deposit was discovered in Panex. Production of the salt began shortly thereafter. In 1582 a salt works was built in Roche. Initially the salt works were run by Bernese patricians and then foreign nobles. In 1685 the salt mines came under the direct control of the Bernese state. At the beginning of the 18th Century it was entrusted to a General Director, the most famous of which was Albrecht von Haller.
To provide wood for the salt works in Roche, in 1695 a forest was planted in the Joux Verte gorge. Starting in the 16th Century, they began to replace natural evaporation with...
Less
