Grandvaux (Vaud)

Grandvaux is a former municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, located in the district of Lavaux-Oron. The municipalities of Cully, Epesses, Grandvaux, Riex and Villette (Lavaux) merged on 1 July 2011 into the new municipality of Bourg-en-Lavaux. Grandvaux is first mentioned in 1250 as de Gravaz. In 1445 it was mentioned as Grandvaulx. Grandvaux has an area, , of . Of this area, is used for agricultural purposes, while is forested. Of the rest of the land, is settled (buildings or roads). Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 22.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 11.6%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 22.4% is used for growing crops and 11.9% is pastures, while 19.0% is used for orchards or vine crops. The municipality was part of the Lavaux District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Grandvaux became part of the new district of Lavaux-Oron. The municipality is located on the shores of Lake Geneva. It stretches from the lake up to the high Signal de Grandvaux. It consists of the village of Grandvaux, several hamlets including Curson as well as woods in the Jorat. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, an Orb argent. Grandvaux has a population () of 2,014. , 18.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009) the population has changed at a rate of 4.4%. It has changed at a rate of 1.8% due to migration and at a rate of 2.2% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks French (1,628 or 84.0%), with German being second most common (135 or 7.0%) and English being third (81 or 4.2%). There are 29 people who speak Italian. Of the population in the municipality 365 or about 18.8% were born in Grandvaux and lived there in 2000. There were 752 or 38.8% who were born in the same canton, while 344 or 17.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 424 or 21.9% were born outside of Switzerland.