History, Culture and Religion
La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle

Colouring picture - La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, Watchmaking Town Planning

The pictures in our "search and find" book have lost their colour. That's why we are looking for small and big artists to make our World Heritage colourful again.

The “search and find” pictures help children to discover the UNESCO World Heritage properties in Switzerland in a simple way. 

What is a UNESCO World Heritage property?

Imagine that there are special places all over the world that are so important and beautiful that we want to protect them forever. These places are for example old castles, big mountains, ancient cities or beautiful natural areas. Some of them are so old that they were built or created many hundreds or thousands of years ago.

All these places are on a List of UNESCO (an organisation of the United Nations). This list shows that these places are important for the whole world, not just for one country. We can therefore be very proud of the UNESCO World Heritage properties in Switzerland and should take good care of them.

The World Heritage “La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, Watchmaking Town Planning”

La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle are two towns that are very famous for their watches. A long time ago, many people started making watches there. After a major fire, the two towns were rebuilt in such a way that they were completely orientated towards watchmaking. The streets and houses were all planned in such a way that the watchmakers could work particularly well. For example, there was plenty of daylight in the watchmakers' ateliers, which was very important in order to be able to see and assemble the small parts of the watches clearly.

UNESCO has designated these two towns as a World Heritage property because they are unique. They show us how the watchmaking industry has shaped the cities and how the people there have created a very special urban landscape that only exists there.

 

More information and ordering options for the “search and find” book: edu.ourheritage.ch