Montreux (UK: /mɒ̃ˈtrɜː/,[3] US: /mɒ̃ˈtroʊ/;[4] French: [mɔ̃tʁø] ⓘ; Arpitan: Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps.

It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut district in the canton of Vaud, having a population of approximately 26,500, with about 85,000 in the Vevey-Montreux agglomeration as of 2019.

The region includes numerous Belle Époque palaces and hotels near the shores of Lake Geneva.

[5] The name derives from a small monastery (Latin: monasteriolum) on the site by the 11th century,[6] which subsequently developed as Mustruel, Muchtern (1215),[5] Muistruum (1228), Monstruacum, Mustruz, and Moutru.

[6] Viniculture was introduced in the 12th century, and the sunny slopes of the lake from Lavaux to Montreux became an important winegrowing region.

In 1317, it was split between the Lords of Oron (Le Châtelard) and the Counts of Savoy (Les Planches).

After the Burgundian Wars in the 15th century, the Swiss in Bern occupied the region without resistance, an indication of the weakness of the princes of Savoy.

The Reformation made the region around Montreux and Vevey an attractive haven for Huguenots from Italy, who brought their artisanal skills and set up workshops and businesses.

In the 19th century, the tourist industry became a major commercial outlet, with the grand hotels of Montreux attracting the rich and cultured from Europe and America.

The church, the market hall of La Rouvenaz, the secondary school (the building was from 1872 and 1897) and the slaughter-house (1912) were all owned by the county council.

In 1962, the municipalities of Le Châtelard and Les Planches merged, while Veytaux remained independent.

[13] The historical population is given in the following chart:[5][18] The Swiss heritage site of national significance in Montreux includes: The Audiorama (also known as the Swiss National Audiovisual Museum), Crêtes Castle, Châtelard Castle, the Train Station, the Hôtel Montreux Palace, the Caux Palace Hotel, the Ile and Villa Salagnon, the Marché couvert, the Grand-Hôtel/the Hôtel des Alpes (which served as the recording studio for Deep Purple's Machine Head album), and the Villa Karma.

The entire urban village of Territet / Veytaux as well as the Caux, Montreux and Villas Dubochet areas are all part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

[19] Montreux is twinned with the towns of In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 22.11% of the vote.

The number of jobs in the primary sector was 55, of which 31 were in agriculture, 17 were in forestry or lumber production and 6 were in fishing or fisheries.

In the tertiary sector; 1,296 or 16.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 439 or 5.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 1,311 or 16.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 70 or 0.9% were in the information industry, 564 or 7.2% were the insurance or financial industry, 458 or 5.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 943 or 12.1% were in education and 1,591 or 20.4% were in health care.

In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts.

The latter is also the western terminus of the Montreux–Glion–Rochers-de-Naye and Montreux–Lenk im Simmental lines, both of which climb into the hills away from Lake Geneva and have several dozen stations within Montreux.

[35] Montreux was a haven for Catherine Barkley and Lt. Frederic Henry in Ernest Hemingway's classic novel A Farewell to Arms.

The main square of the town, Place du Marché, features a statue of Freddie Mercury facing Lake Geneva.

The Château of Chillon has views over Lake of Geneva and can be accessed via bus, train, walk or boat.

[citation needed] Deep Purple traveled to Montreux in December 1971 to record Machine Head.

Thanks to Claude Nobs, who eventually arranged alternate locations, the Grand Hôtel de Territet was where almost the entirety of the album was created and recorded, except for "Smoke on the Water" which had already been partly recorded at the "Le Petit Palais", formerly called "Le Pavilion".

However, the only other memorial dedicated to the band's song that can be found nowadays in Montreux, is a small plaque placed outside the back entrance of the former Grand Hôtel de Territet.

"Bonzo's Montreux" by Led Zeppelin is named after the city where the drums session of John Bonham was recorded in 1976.

Montreux was also the subject of the 1995 Queen single "A Winter's Tale" on the album Made in Heaven, one of Freddie's last songs before his death on 24 November 1991.