Chavannes-près-Renens

Chavannes-près-Renens is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, located in the district of Ouest Lausannois. The eastern part of Chavannes-près-Renens was already inhabited during the time of the Romans. A bronze figurine, an axe, knives and several iron items have been found from that period. From the middle ages until the 18th century it was a rural town focused on agriculture. Chavannes-près-Renens is first mentioned in 1224 as Chavanes. In another document from October 1272 the former bisschop of Lausanne Jean de Cossonay talks about the territory of Chavannes as well as its mills. Chavannes-près-Renens has an area, , of . Of this area, or 23.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 9.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 65.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.4% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 4.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 27.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 18.2%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 14.5%. Out of the forested land, 6.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.3% is used for growing crops and 9.1% is pastures, while 4.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality was part of the Morges District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Chavannes-près-Renens became part of the new district of Ouest Lausannois. The municipality is located in the industrial region westward of Lausanne. The coat of arms of the town consists of an arched bridge and a cherry branch on an argent (silver) and gules (red) background. This coat of arms was adopted in 1905 but got its final form in 1930. The bridge and the background colors represent the bridge in Lausanne under which the inhabitants of Chavannes had to walk in the Middle Ages. The cherries symbolize the importance of orchards for the town at the beginning of the 20th century.