Clarens, Switzerland



Clarens is a small village in the municipality of Montreux, in the canton of Vaud, in Switzerland.

Clarens was made famous throughout Europe by the immense success of the book La Nouvelle Héloïse by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Notable people

 * Lived in Clarens
 * Élisée Reclus (1830–1905) a renowned French geographer, writer and anarchist resided in Clarens from 1872
 * Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) the Russian composer of the romantic period, wrote his Violin Concerto in Clarens in 1878, it is one of the best known violin concertos ever written.
 * Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) the Russian composer lived in Clarens during the summers of 1910 to 1915 where wrote his ballets The Rite of Spring and Pulcinella


 * Died in Clarens
 * David Urquhart (1805–1877) a Scottish diplomat, writer and politician, MP for Stafford 1847 to 1852, introduced the Turkish bath to Britain, lived in Clarens from 1864 and is buried here
 * Paul Kruger (1825–1904) hero of South African independence from the United Kingdom lived his final year in Clarens and died here. Accordingly, Clarens, Free State, a small town in South Africa, was given the same name.
 * Johannes van Laar (1860-1938) a Dutch chemist who is best known for the equations regarding chemical activity (Van Laar equation).
 * Buried in Clarens
 * Sydney Chaplin (1885–1965) an English actor and the elder half-brother of Sir Charlie Chaplin. He died in Nice and was buried in Clarens.
 * Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) an Austrian artist, poet and playwright of expressionistic portraits and landscapes lived in Montreux from 1947 to 1980, where he died. He is buried in Clarens.
 * Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) a Russian-born novelist, poet, translator and entomologist; in 1961 he and Véra moved to Montreux, where he subsequently died. He is buried in Clarens

Education
St George's School in Switzerland, a British international school, is in Clarens.