Payerne

Payerne is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, in the district of Broye-Vully; until the districts were reorganised in 2006 it was the capital of its own Payerne district. The town grew around a Cluniac priory founded in the 10th century, and in 1033 Emperor Conrad II was crowned King of Burgundy in the priory church, whose abbey buildings are a Swiss heritage site of national significance together with other buildings in the old town. Payerne is first recorded in 961, was long known in German as Peterlingen, and passed to Bern after the conquest of Vaud in 1536. Its 24.19 square kilometres are mostly farmland, and about 10,000 people live there. It is home to a major airbase of the Swiss Air Force and to the Musée de l'aviation militaire, and a railway station serves Lausanne, Fribourg and Yverdon-les-Bains.