This project was developed as part of the Digital Urban History course at EPFL/UNIL, Lausanne, and brings together students from various disciplines with the goal of using technology to explore the history of Lausanne.
Our project is an interactive map that displays images from a database of historical photos of Lausanne. These images are placed geographically and are accompanied by a description. In order to deepen the historical analysis of this iconographic source, we focused on certain topics (such as the Pichard belt) by manually selecting relevant images and providing a more in-depth historical analysis using additional sources (texts, additional images). The interactivity of the map has also been customized to best complement each subject and its analysis.
The main topic covered in our project is the Pichard belt, which was a series of roads built between 1838 and 1863 that allowed people to bypass the city center without using the narrow, steep, and slippery roads that were in place at the time. The Pichard belt played a significant role in the development of Lausanne in the 19th century, facilitating the transport of goods and people and helping to improve the city's economy.
You can access the website here. You can also directly access the map 🗺️ here.