After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, Tavannes was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. Three years later, in 1800 it became part of the Département of Haut-Rhin. He later became a French noble and Governor of Algeria.Īfter the 1797 French victory and the Treaty of Campo Formio, Tavannes became part of the French Département of Mont-Terrible. Some were enthusiastic, among them Théophile Voirol, who after rapid promotions, became a general. Īfter the French Revolution, the French Republican Army invaded the district in 1792 and forcibly recruited local soldiers to its ranks. When Tavannes accepted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation, the village church of Saint-Etienne, which was built in 1385, became a Reformed church and remained the only church in Tavannes until the Catholic Church of Christ-Roi was built in 1930. In the spring of 1530, Guillaume Farel preached the Reformation in Tavannes and surrounding areas, with great success. At Rudolph's death, the district passed into the Holy Roman Empire, to which it belonged for 760 years. In 999, King Rudolph III of Burgundy gave the monastery of Moutier-Grandval and all its possessions to the Prince-Bishop of Basel. The first mention of Tavannes (or its Latin equivalent Theisvenna) dates to 866. In 630, a monastery was established at Moutier-Grandval, and Tavannes belonged to its possessions. In the fourth century, as the Roman Empire crumbled, the Burgundians moved into the area around Tavannes. ',which means the same as the older German name 'Dachsfelden'. Its name comes from the ancient Germanic words 'Þahs-winja, ancien haut allemand dahs, germanique *þahsu, « blaireau », et gothique vinja, germanique *venjô, « pâturage ». Tavannes was one of the earliest inhabited locations in the district. The Roman administrator left an inscription in the cliff at Pierre-Pertuis to this effect.Įarly mills were built along the Birse, utilizing its water as a source of power. Under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Romans improved this road between 161 and 169 AD. The area around Tavannes was traversed by the early inhabitants of the Helvetic plain because of the natural tunnel through the Jura between the valley of the Suze and the valley of the Birse. Aerial view from 900 m by Walter Mittelholzer (1930)