Morges is first mentioned in 1288 as Morgia. It was known by its German name Morsee though that name is no longer used.
Prehistory
There were several prehistoric settlements along what is now the Morges lakefront. The largest and best known, Grande-Cit�, was occupied in the late Bronze Age. One of the wooden objects at Grande-Cit� has been dendrochronologically dated to 1031 BC. Many of the stilts and building structures have been preserved in situ. A dugout of oak was discovered near the settlement and in 1877 half of it was recovered and placed in the Mus�e d'histoire et d'art in Geneva.
About a hundred meters (yards) further north is the village of Vers-l'Eglise. The first settlement here dates back to the Neolithic, based on a layer of ceramic objects that date from between 2900 BC and 2700 BC. It remained occupied through the Late Bronze Age.
North-east of Grande-Cit� is the third lake settlement, Les Roseaux, which comes from the Early Bronze Age. It is a rich site for artifacts including numerous edge strips for bronze axes and cups made of fine ceramics (of the Roseaux type). The arrangement of the stilts show the organization of the huts, which were oriented at right angles to the modern shore. Dendrochronological investigations of the stilts have determined that many of the houses were built between 1776 and 1600 BC. On top of the older settlement, a smaller Late Bronze Age settlement, dendrochronologically dated to 1055 BC, has been discovered.
The Bronze Age settlements were abandoned and the region was sparsely inhabited until the Gallo-Roman era when a villa and farms were built.
Medieval Morges
In 1286, Louis of Savoy, founded a city in a pasture where a gallows has previously stood. A castle was built to protect the city. A town charter was granted in 1293. The new city grew at the expense of the county of Vufflens, the diocese of Lausanne and Romainm�tier Abbey, all of which lost
