Moudon

Moudon (mudɔ̃; Minnodunum; Milden) is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It was the seat of Moudon District and is now in the Broye-Vully district. Montmagny was known as Minnodunum or Minnidunum during the Roman era. Around 1100, 1154 and 1180 it was mentioned as Meldun, in 1161 it was Moudon and in 1167 as Meldunum or Mildunum. As ancient Minnodunum, during Roman times, the city was in the country of the Helvetii, on a road from Viviscus (modern Vevey), on the Lake of Geneva, to Aventicum (modern Avenches). Moudon has an area, , of . Of this area, or 46.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 35.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 16.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.9% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 6.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.5%. Out of the forested land, 32.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 27.9% is used for growing crops and 17.8% is pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 1.6% is in rivers and streams. The municipality was the capital of the Moudon District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Moudon became part of the new district of Broye-Vully. The upper city is located at the confluence of the Mérine and Broye rivers. The lower city stretches downstream along the Broye river. It lies on the intersection of two historically important roads, one from Italy to Burgundy and the other between Geneva and Bern. It consists of the village of Moudon and the hamlets of Plan and Villaret, the northern section of the hamlet of Bressonnaz-Dessous and numerous (mostly medieval) farm house settlements including Alliérens, Beauregard, Belflori, Chalabruz, Cornier, Frémont, La Baume, La Cerjaulaz, La Faye, Le Grand-Pré, Grange-Verney, Gréchon, Montsandon, Valacrêt.