Underground Water-Mills of the Col-Des-Roches

The Underground Water-Mills of the Col-Des-Roches
- Le Locle in the French speaking area of Switzerland.

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Le Locle, situated in an upper valley of the Central Jura Mountains in Switzerland, has a special feature : its surrounding summits rise on all sides and thus form a closed-in valley. Le Locle's water was originally retained in a lake which nevertheless found its way eventually by an underground passage through the rocky shelf at the western end of the valley. The site was formely named "Portes du Locle" (Gates of Le Locle), "Roches Fendues" (Split Rocks), or "Cul-des-Roches" (End of the Rocks) is today called "Le Col-des-Roches", some two kilometres from the town of Le Locle.
Its first inhabitants were reindeer hunters of the Mesolithic era. They settled where the water disappeared, naturally taking advantage of the over-hanging rocks for shelter. Archaeological excavations have discovered some 360 objects which give proof of seven different epoch layers, from the Mesolithic through to the Neolithic age.
Modern man decided to settle at the Col-des-Roches in the middle of the 16th century in order to exploit the hydraulic power of the valley's water. Jonas Sandoz can claim the honour of developing the underground section of the water-mills as of 1660 and thus succeeded in making the underground mills at the Col-des-Roches a curiosity unique in Europe.
These exceptional mills have been modified several times. In 1844-45, Jean-Georges Eberlé had the imposing building, still visible today, erected and installed there a modern, high-performance mill for that time. The wheel of fortune turned with the consequence that the mills were abandoned and the water of the Bied offered the people of Le Locle another energy - electricity.
Since 1973, the Col-des-Roches Millers' Confraternity has worked benevolently to save the site, to enhance its value and to create a National Millers Museum, providing visitors with a double excursion into:
i. the underground world
ii. the history of the region and of water-mills