History and culture

The Chiètres hill seems to have been the first inhabited spot. It is in fact there that we find the prehistoric site of the rock-shelter, the Celtic stone circle of Champ-Peuffler and the lake site of the former Lake Luissel.
The major Roman Road from Italy to Mainz crossed the Rhone at Massongex where the natural thermal baths of Tarnaiae were located.
One tradition has it that it was the discovery of a resort spring at the foot of Montet that influenced the Romans to move obliquely from Massongex towards Bex thus founding the “Villa Baccis”. It would seem rather that the names Bacium, Baccus or Baccis, which were the earlier names of Bex, were derived from “bac” (the word for ferry boat) since a ferry boat replaced the Roman bridge that was destroyed in 563 by the rock slide of the Tauredunum, the mountain located at Bois-Noir (Valais). The remains of the bridge abutments are on the terrace of the Saint Clement church.

After the fall of the Roman Empire “Villa Baccis” shows up modestly in the annals of the High Middle Ages. The chronicle of Marius, bishop of Lausanne, in fact mentions that the Francs, in 574, under King Gontran defeated the Lombards who had invaded the Valais and devastated the countryside. This combat supposedly took place in the region of the Chiètres hill where ancient arms have been found (Lake Luissel). After the relentless disturbances of the barbarian era, a modest town grew around the 1193 church dedicated to Saint Clement, a first century pope.
But the first parchment mentioning Bex dates from 1138 and tells us that “Willamus and Garnerius de Baiz” identified themselves as vassals of Amedeus III of Savoy. These “de Bex” reappeared in 1179 as guarantors in a treaty signed between the bishop of Sion and Humbert III of Savoy. In 1150, one of them, Girold, had the Bex castle built, which became the Duin castle, named for Antoine de Duyn, lord of Bex, who came to live there in 1431 and where this family remained until 1574. One tower of this castle still overlooks the Chiètres hill. Gérold de Bex also founded “burgum novum” (Bornuit), which is modern-day Bex.
In the era preceding the Burgundy wars (1470 – 77), the region, which was under the sovereignty of the dukes of Savoy, was divided into a large number of fiefs. The bishops of Sion, the princes of Valais, had a tendancy to consider as theirs the territories under their religious jurisdiction and Savoy contested such pretensions, arms in hand.
On 12 August 1476, the inhabitants of Bex, after the signature of the treaty of Fribourg, went from being under the dominance of the counts of Savoy to being subject to the “Bear paw”, which put them under the control of Bern 60 years before the rest of the canton of Vaud!
On 5 March 1528 Bern abolished the Catholic Mass, had religious images shattered: the Writ of Mandamus of Bex was the first of the Aigle government to accept the Reformation. This was also the period (1560) when major work began on the salt mines which would for centuries enhance the importance of our city.
Bex enjoyed its greatest prosperity in the mid 18th century. The verses of Cropt, Glarey, and Allex inspired the admiration of the first visitors. Later all the major figures of romanticism visited Bex.
Beautiful and impressive buildings gradually replaced the old more primitive dwellings: notably City Hall, the Hôtel de l’Ours, the Feuillet castle. Bern stimulated, organised, legislated and reglemented; the entire life of the city was the object of precise decrees, and therefore reprimands: the hatred grew, fire was brewing. People did not tolerate well the political intransigence and even less the continuous interference into the private lives of the inhabitants of Vaud. Agitation was just about everywhere; in 1790 the Lower Valais shook off the yoke of the Upper Valais; and in 1798 it was the French Revolution.
De la Harpe and his friends interested Bonaparte in the fate of the inhabitants of Vaud. Assured of the protection of France, the revolutionaries acted with great energy; on 24 January 1798 the banner of the Lemanic Republic (later the canton of Vaud) was hoisted in Lausanne. The Bernese bailiff was invited to leave the castle. On 26 January 1798 Bex proclaimed its membership in the Lemanic Republic.
Commander Forneret, having left Bex with his troops, led one of the last combats against the Bernese. He was killed at Col de la Croix on 5 March 1798. The monument on the Market place commemorates this event which contributed to eliminating any trace of the dominance of Bern in the Vaud territory; the old Republic of Bern had succumbed. From then on Bex was a free city in a free country. Its history was as of then linked to that of the country of Vaud which would become a member of the Swiss Confederation on 14 April 1803.
Extract of the “Mandement de Bex”(Writ of Mandamus of Bex)