1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vevey
VEVEY [German Vivis], a small town in the Swiss canton of Vaud and near the eastern extremity of the Lake of Geneva. It is by rail 12 m. S.E. of Lausanne or 3½ m. N.W. of the Vernex-Montreux railway station, while it is well served by steamers plying over the Lake of Geneva. In 1900 it had a population of 11,781, of whom 8878 were French-speaking, while there were 8277 Protestants to 3424 Romanists and 56 Jews. It is the second town in point of population in the canton, coming next after Lausanne, though inferior to the “agglomeration” known as Montreux. It stands at the mouth of the Veveyse and commands fine views of the snowy mountains seen over the glassy surface of the lake. The whole of the surrounding country is covered with vineyards, which (with the entertainment of foreign visitors) occupy the inhabitants. Every twenty years or so (last in 1889 and 1905) the Fête des Vignerons is held here by an ancient gild of vinedressers, and attracts much attention. Besides a railway line that joins the Montreux-Bernese Oberland line at Chamby (5 m. from Vevey and 1¼ m. below Les Avants) there is a funicular railway from Vevey up the Mont Pèlerin (3557 ft.) to the north-west.
Vevey was a Roman settlement [Viviscus] and later formed part of the barony of Vaud, that was held by the counts and dukes of Savoy till 1536, when it was conquered by Bern. In 1798 it was freed from Bernese rule and became part of the canton du Léman (renamed canton de Vaud in 1803) of the Helvetic Republic. (W. A. B. C.)