The Jura Mountains ( / ˈ dʒ ʊər ə , ˈ ʒ ʊər ə / JOOR -ə, ZHOOR -ə ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border . While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", Faltenjura ) is located in France and Switzerland, the range continues northeastwards through northern Switzerland and Germany as the Table Jura ("not folded Jura", Tafeljura ), which is crossed by the High Rhine .
29-511: The Grenchenberg (1,405 m) is a mountain of the Jura , located on the border between the Swiss cantons of Bern and Solothurn . The mountain is named after the town of Grenchen , located on its south side. This article about a mountain, mountain range, or peak located in the canton of Bern is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Canton of Solothurn location article
58-434: A major centre of the watchmaking industry. The area has several cities at very high altitudes, such as La Chaux-de-Fonds , Le Locle and Sainte-Croix (renowned for its musical boxes ); however, it generally has had a marked decline in population since 1960. Both Le Locle and its geographical twin town La Chaux-de-Fonds are recognised as an UNESCO World Heritage Site for their horological and related cultural past. In
87-430: A second poll of 16 March 1975, the four districts of Courtelary , La Neuveville , Moutier and Laufen voted in favour of remaining with Bern. In Autumn 1975, a third vote was conducted in the 14 municipalities which the new border would traverse: each could choose to join the new Canton of Jura or remain with the canton of Bern. Six chose to remain with Bern, while seven opted to join the new Canton of Jura. In 1977,
116-646: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Jura Mountains The mountain range gives its name to the French department of Jura , the Swiss canton of Jura , the Jurassic period of the geologic timescale, and the Montes Jura of the Moon . It is first attested as mons Iura in book one of Julius Caesar 's Commentarii de Bello Gallico . Strabo uses a Greek masculine form ὁ Ἰόρας ("through
145-570: The Rassemblement jurassien . In 1952, the opposing anti-separatist side was constituted as the Union des patriotes jurassiens (UPJ). A group of militant young separatists known as the Béliers ("rams") was formed in 1963, which by 1973 received its anti-separatist counterpart in the group Sangliers ("wild boars"). The cantonal government of Bern formed an official commission charged with
174-573: The Unité jurassienne (UJ) groups. Another separatist group is Mouvement Indépendantiste Jurassien (MIJ), formed in 1990. The three Bernese districts of Courtelary, La Neuveville and Moutier were united as the single district Jura bernois in 2001. Due to the remaining separatist faction in Moutier , another poll was held in 1998, but the district again decided to remain Bernese. But in 2006,
203-644: The Jura ridgeway , a 310 km (190 mi) hiking route. Several peaks feature observation towers (e.g. Faux d'Enson , Hage ). Tourist attractions in the Swiss Jura include natural features such as the Creux du Van , lookout peaks such as the Chasseral , caves such as the Grottes de Vallorbe , as well as gorges such as Taubenloch . The Swiss Jura has been industrialized since the 18th century and became
232-708: The Rhine and Rhône basins . The northern and eastern part of the range drains towards the Rhine river and its tributaries Aare and Ill , whereas the western and southern parts drain towards the Rhône river and its (sub)tributaries Doubs , Saône , and Ain . Initially the river Doubs (a subtributary of the Rhône) flows about 100 km (62 mi) northeast, briefly venturing into Switzerland, then changing direction and flowing about 170 km (110 mi) southwest before joining
261-680: The Rhône-Alpes region and north into the Grand Est region. The range reaches its highest point at the Crêt de la Neige (1,720 m (5,640 ft)), in department of Ain , 5 km west from the Swiss border of the canton of Geneva , and finds its southern terminus in the northwestern part of the department of Savoie . The north end of the Jura extends into the southern tip of Alsace ( Sundgau ). Roughly 1,600 km (600 sq mi) of
290-619: The Black Boxes scandal was revealed: the canton of Bern had illegally distributed over 430,000 CHF between 1974 and 1982 to Loyalist groups to influence votes and referendums. In a 1983 vote, the population of Laufen declined to join Basel-Landschaft. After the scandal of the Black Boxes, the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland ordered a new vote that took place on 12 November 1989. After a transitional period,
319-522: The French Jura, the 11th-century Fort de Joux , famously remodeled and strengthened by Vauban in 1690 and subsequently by other military engineers, is situated on a natural rock outcropping in the middle of the range not far from Pontarlier . Part of the A40 autoroute crosses through a portion of the southern Jura between Bourg-en-Bresse and Bellegarde-sur-Valserine , which is known as the "Highway of
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#1732793110912348-507: The Jura consists of a sequence of geologic folds, the formation of which is facilitated by an evaporitic decollement layer. The box folds are still relatively young, which is evident by the general shape of the landscape showing that they have not existed long enough to experience erosion , thus revealing recent mountain building. The Jura range offer a variety of tourist activities including hiking, cycling, downhill skiing and cross-country skiing. There are many signposted trails including
377-419: The Jura mountains", διὰ τοῦ Ἰόρα ὄρους ) in his Geographica (4.6.11). Based on suggestions by Ferdinand de Saussure , early celticists such as Georges Dottin tried to establish an etymon "iura-, iuri" as a Celtic word for mountains, with similar putative etymologies (e.g. * juris , "mountainous forest") still appearing in more recent non-academic publications. However, since there are no clear cognates in
406-589: The Jura range proper is the Lägern , situated east of the river Aare. Much of the Swiss Jura region has no historical association with Early Modern Switzerland and was incorporated as part of the Swiss Confederacy only in the 19th century. In the 20th century, a movement for Jura separatism developed which resulted in the creation of the Canton of Jura in 1979. The east of the Jura range proper separates
435-753: The Saône ca. 140 km (87 mi) north of the French city of Lyon . In Lyon, the Saône joins the Rhône. While the Rhine flows into the North Sea , the Rhône flows into the Mediterranean Sea . Northeast, the Jura range proper (known as "folded Jura", Faltenjura ) is continued as the Table Jura ( Tafeljura ). The Table Jura ranges (from southwest to northeast) across the Swiss cantons of Basel-Landschaft , Aargau , and Schaffhausen ( Randen ), and
464-577: The Titans". Jura separatism Jura separatism ( French : séparatisme jurassien ) is a regionalist autonomist movement in the Bernese Jura of Switzerland . The " Jura question " (French: question jurassienne ; German: Jurafrage ) is the question of secession of the Jura region from Bern , implemented partially as three of seven districts formed the Canton of Jura in 1979, while
493-606: The autonomist parties gained a majority in the regional elections. In the same year, a Conseil du Jura bernois was formed, the only example of a regional parliament in Switzerland. A new suggestion was published in 2007 by the Assemblée InterJurassienne (AIJ), to the effect that two " half-cantons " should be formed from the existing canton of Jura and the Bernese Jura. In 2013, a new vote
522-474: The canton of Jura to organise to vote on its cantonal belonging. Vellerat proclaimed itself a "free municipality" and campaigned to join the new canton, which it eventually did in 1996 after the Swiss voters approved by 91.6% the transfer of Vellerat to the Canton of Jura on 10 March 1996. In 1994, the Mouvement autonomiste jurassien (MAJ) was formed from a fusion of the Rassemblement jurassien (RJ) and
551-871: The mountain range in France is protected by the Jura Mountains Regional Natural Park . The Swiss Jura is one of the three distinct geographical regions of Switzerland, the others being the Swiss plateau and the Swiss Alps . Most of the range covers the western border with France. In Switzerland, the Jura Mountains extend over an area covering (from northeast to southwest) the cantons of Zurich , Aargau , Basel-Landschaft , Solothurn , Jura , Bern (i.e., Bernese Jura ), Neuchâtel , Vaud , and Geneva . The easternmost mountain of
580-399: The move was approved by Swiss voters on 26 September 1993 by a majority of 75.2% and was effected in 1994. With the creation of the canton of Jura, militant activism decreased, but there remained a politically active irredentist movement in the Bernese Jura . The Béliers continued though to engage in acts of vandalism to express their outrage at what they claimed were irregularities in
609-822: The plebiscites of 1974 and 1975, among other things stealing the Unspunnen Stone in 1984, and destroying the historic " Fountain of Justice " statue in Bern in 1986. On 25 March 1994, the Inter-Jura Assembly was created by the Swiss Confederation to allow dialogue between the North and the South. The 25 March Agreement allowed eventually the municipality of Vellerat , that found itself in the canton of Bern, but it could only be reached via roads from
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#1732793110912638-418: The population of what was going to be the new canton ratified the cantonal constitution. Finally, the population of Switzerland in a national referendum accepted the accession of the new canton to the Swiss Confederacy with an 82.3% majority, and the new canton was officially created on 1 January 1979. Laufen was now a Bernese exclave, wedged between the new canton, Solothurn and Basel-Landschaft . In 1984,
667-530: The remaining four opted to remain with Bern. Historically, the conflict originates with the Congress of Vienna (1815), where the Jurassic territories of the Prince-Bishopric of Basel were given to Bern. The "Jurassic question" was a topic in Swiss politics between 1947 and 1974. In 1947, a separatist Comité de Moutier was formed. By 1949, the separatist movement was officially constituted as
696-576: The resolution of the conflict in 1967. On 23 June 1974, a cantonal poll was held resulting in the decision to form a new canton of Jura. The three districts of Delémont , Porrentruy and Franches-Montagnes opted to secede with an important majority. The Yes won in total over the 7 districts but the No was ahead in Courtelary , La Neuveville , Moutier (the South Districts ) and Laufen . In
725-538: The southern German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria (as Klettgau Jura, Baar Jura , and the Swabian and Franconian plateaus). The range is built up vertically while decreasing in size laterally (along a rough northwest–southeast line). This deformation accommodates the compression from alpine folding as the main Alpine orogenic front moves roughly northwards. The deformation becomes less pervasive away from
754-595: The surviving corpus of the Celtic languages, modern studies of Proto-Celtic and Gaulish etymology tend not to list any lemmata connected to Jura, and the name must be considered fundamentally unclear. The Jura Mountains are a far province of the larger Central European uplands . The Jura range proper lies in France and Switzerland. In France, the Jura covers most of the Franche-Comté region, stretching south into
783-587: The transfer of the city of Moutier by 2,067 votes (51.72%) against 1,930 votes (48.28%). On 17 September 2017, Belprahon and Sorvilier finally rejected their transfers to the Canton of Jura. With the end of these three votes, the Assemblée InterJurasienne was dissolved on 17 November 2017. A year later, on 5 November 2018, the Yes Vote of Moutier was cancelled by the administrative Jura Bernese Prefecture pointing to unneutral propaganda by
812-663: The younger, more active Alpine mountain building. The geologic folds comprise three major bands ( lithological units) of building that date from three epochs : the Lias ( Early Jurassic ), the Dogger ( Middle Jurassic ) and the Malm ( Late Jurassic ) geologic periods . Each era of folding reveals effects of previously shallow marine environments as evidenced by beds with carbonate sequences, containing abundant bioclasts and oolitic divisions between layers (called horizons). Structurally,
841-515: Was organised to launch a process to create a new canton with the Canton of Jura and the Bernese Jura. The project is accepted in the Canton of Jura by 76.6% but is rejected in the South by 71.8% with the notable exception of Moutier (55% Yes), Belprahon and Sorvilier . This led to the organisation of a new municipal vote in Moutier. The canton of Bern allowed the municipality to hold a new referendum organised on 18 June 2017. The majority favoured
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