One of the largest Roman era villas in Switzerland was excavated from under the castle in 1840–42 by Frédéric Dubois de Montperreux.

It was built in multiple stages between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD into a palatial mansion with a peristyle, at least two baths with mosaics and frescoes and terraced gardens.

Under Johann Jakob von Watteville, the Protestant Reformation was successfully introduced in town.

When portions of the Armée de l'Est were interred in Colombier in 1871, the Catholic Mass began to be read once again in the church.

In the middle of the 17th century, the town was saved from bankruptcy through a loan given by the bankers Abraham Mouchet and his son.

Henri II d'Orléans, the Prince of Neuchatel, freed the municipality from its debts in 1657.

In exchange, the municipality pledged to plant trees along the road from the lake to the castle.

[6] In 1734, the first spinning factory in the Lower Areuse was built in Colombier by Jean-Jacques Deluz Bied.

The factory brought a degree of prosperity and enabled the construction stately country houses in the vicinity of the village (Le Bied, Vaudijon, La Mairesse, Cottendart, Sombacour).

Starting in 1824, it was used by the Federal militias as a parade ground and was converted into a barracks and given an expanded arsenal.

In 2003, the Army XXI reforms dissolved the division and in 2004 the barracks became an infantry training center.

The regional secondary school was built in the 1969 and teaches students from Colombier, Cortaillod, Boudry, Bôle, Rochefort and Auvernier.

[10] The historical population is given in the following chart:[11] The municipality has three railway stations: Auvernier, Colombier NE, and Bôle.

In Colombier the Arsenal, the prehistoric lake shore settlement at Baie d'Auvernier, Colombier Castle with its museum, Roman villa and fortifications, the Domaine de Vaudijon, the House de maître du Bied and the Manoir Le Pontet are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance.