L'Abbaye

L'Abbaye is a municipality in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, located in the Jura-Nord Vaudois district in the Vallée de Joux. It takes its name from Lac de Joux Abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery. L'Abbaye was created as an independent municipality in 1571 from the municipality of Le Lieu. L'Abbaye has an area, as of 2009, of 31.88 square kilometers (12.31 sq mi). Of this area, 10.83 km (4.18 sq mi) or 34.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 19.35 km (7.47 sq mi) or 60.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.17 km (0.45 sq mi) or 3.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.31 km (0.12 sq mi) or 1.0% is either rivers or lakes and 0.25 km (0.097 sq mi) or 0.8% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 54.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 6.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.0% is used for growing crops and 9.3% is pastures and 24.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.