Montreux

Montreux is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps, in the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut district of the canton of Vaud. It has a population of nearly 27,000, with about 85,000 in the Vevey-Montreux agglomeration as of 2019. It lies in the middle of the region called the Vaud or Swiss Riviera and has been an important tourist destination since the 19th century because of its mild climate; the region includes numerous Belle Epoque palaces and hotels near the lakeshore. The earliest settlement was a Late Bronze Age village at Baugy, and the town stands at the fork of the Roman road from Italy over the Simplon Pass, where the roads to Aventicum and into Gaul separated, which made it an important Roman settlement. The name derives from a small monastery on the site by the 11th century. Viniculture was introduced in the 12th century, and as of 2009 the municipality covered 33.41 square kilometres, half of it forested. Montreux railway station is a stop on the Simplon Railway and a mountain railway hub.