Map - La Neuveville (La Neuveville)

La Neuveville (Neuenstadt) is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland, located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (Jura Bernois).

La Neuveville is first mentioned in 1314 as Nova-villa.

The oldest traces of settlements in the area include Bronze Age ceramics, Iron Age building ruins and Roman era artifacts which were discovered under the White Church. A pair of graves near the church indicate that a church has stood on the spot since the early Carolingian era. The church is mentioned in 866 when King Lothair II gave it to Moutier-Grandval Abbey. The church was rebuilt or expanded at least twelve times since it was first built. The church's frescoes are from the 14th and 15th centuries.

In 999 the Abbot of Moutier-Grandval Abbey gave his extensive landholdings around Lake Biel, including where La Neuveville would be founded, to the Prince-Bishop of Basel. At that time the region was known as Nugerol and over the next centuries the Bishop of Basel and the Counts of Neuchâtel often quarreled over the land. In 1283-88 the Prince-Bishop Henry von Isny had the Schlossberg Castle built on the slopes of the Jura Mountains to help defend his claim to the land. To further solidify his claims, around 1310, the next Prince-Bishop, Gérard de Vuippens, founded the town of La Neuveville. The exact founding date is uncertain, but a citizen of the town is mentioned in 1310 while the town charter is from 1312. The town pushed the borders of the County of Neuchâtel to the eastern side of the Ruz de Vaux stream.

Under the Prince-Bishops, La Neuveville was the center of the Herrschaft of La Neuveville. The town had extensive autonomy. In 1367 fighting broke out between the Prince-Bishop Johann von Vienne and the city of Bern. The Prince-Bishop fled to Schlossberg Castle ahead of a Bernese army. Bern then besieged the town of La Neuveville and the castle. The citizens of La Neuveville rallied around the Prince-Bishop and drove the Bernese army away. In response, the Prince-Bishop granted the town additional rights and privileges in 1368. The town was granted the right to their own military banner and the right to call Tessenberg and Erguel to their banner. This granted the town a certain amount of military autonomy. Using their increased autonomy, in 1388 La Neuveville signed a citizenship agreement with Bern which granted citizens of La Neuveville the same rights as citizens of Bern. In 1395 they signed a similar pact with the city of Biel though they gave their banner-right over the Erguel region to Biel.

In 1529 and 1530 the French evangelist William Farel was active in spreading the new faith of the Protestant Reformation in La Neuveville. It remained a supporter of the new faith, despite being owned by the Catholic Prince-Bishops. In the 17th century it became an important stopping point for Huguenot refugees from France. The Catholic Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption church was built in 1954 for the towns catholic population.

Despite the town's growing autonomy, its relationship with the Prince-Bishops remained good until the late 17th century. Between 1711 and 1713 and again between 1714 and 1717 riots against the Prince-Bishop occurred regularly in town. The unrest against the Prince-Bishop Johann Konrad von Reinach eventually required Bern's intervention to settle the uproar. After the 1798 French invasion, La Neuveville became part of the French Département of Mont-Terrible. Three years later, in 1800 it became part of the Département of Haut-Rhin. After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, La Neuveville was assigned to the Canton of Bern in 1815. Under Bernese authority the town was initially part of the district of Erlach before becoming the capital of the District de la Neuveville.

The town had a Latin school beginning in the 17th century. In the 18th century a boarding school for foreign students opened. In the 19th century the watch industry settled in La Neuveville. Today about 36% of jobs in the town are still in the watch industry. The other major industry is caring for the 84.8 ha of vineyards that grow on the sunny Jura slopes above town.