Lausanne

Lausanne rises above Lake Geneva, where a Roman settlement once stood near the shore. As imperial authority declined, inhabitants moved to a more defensible hill, and the town became the seat of a bishop whose lands formed a temporal lordship. Its cathedral was consecrated in 1275 in the presence of Pope Gregory X and King Rudolf I.

Bern conquered Lausanne in 1536, ending the bishop's rule and introducing the Reformation. A Protestant academy opened the following year. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, French Huguenots found refuge in the town. Antoine Court established a seminary in 1729 to train pastors destined for France, where they ministered clandestinely. Bernese rule ended in 1798, and Lausanne became capital of the new canton of Vaud in 1803.