YVERDON

German Iferten, city, Vaud canton, western Switzerland, on the southern shore of Lake Neuchtel, at the mouth of La Thielle River, north of Lausanne. It originated as the Roman camp Eburodunum, and the ruined Roman walls remain. The castle (126078) of the dukes of Savoy was the seat of the boarding school established in 1805 by the Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, which flourished for 20 years; it now houses a library, a science-fiction museum, and a historical museum with mementos of Pestalozzi. The town hall and the parish church both date from the 18th century. Yverdon-les-Bains, southeast of the town centre, has been known since Roman times for its small alkaline sulfur spring, which is now housed in the Centre Thermal (reconstructed in 1977). An expanding industrial town, Yverdon has railroad shops and manufactures machinery, precision instruments, and tobacco. Pop. (1987 est.) 21,004.