by the bankers Abraham Mouchet and his son. Henri II d'Orléans, the Prince of Neuchatel, freed the municipality from its debts in 1657. In exchange, the municipality pledged to plant trees along the road from the lake to the castle. A chapel is first mentioned in Colombier in 1177. It became a parish before 1228, which included Montézillon in the Middle Ages, Areuse until 1832 and Auvernier until 1879. The right to appoint the priest at St. Stefan's church in Colombier was held by the cathedral chapter of Lausanne Cathedral. A Catholic parish was founded in 1884. In 1734, the first spinning factory in the Lower Areuse was built in Colombier by Jean-Jacques Deluz Bied. By 1739 it had about 80 workers. The factory brought a degree of prosperity and enabled the construction stately country houses in the vicinity of the village (Le Bied, Vaudijon, La Mairesse, Cottendart, Sombacour). In 1806, Colombier Castle was converted into a military hospital. Starting in 1824, it was used by the Federal militias as a parade ground and was converted into a barracks and given an expanded arsenal. In 1877 it became the official barracks of the 2. Division, which later became Field Division 2. In 2003, the Army XXI reforms dissolved the Division and in 2004 the barracks became an infantry training center. In the 19th century, Colombier was a regional center, with a gas plant and a bank. The first train station was built in 1859–60. In 1892 it became part of the tram line Neuchâtel-Boudry and in 1927 an airfield was built in the municipality. The regional secondary school was built in the 1969 and teaches students from Colombier, Cortaillod, Boudry, Bôle, Rochefort and Auvernier. It is now a residential community, with few industries. Many of the jobs in town support the barracks. Geography Colombier had an area, , of . Of this area, or 39.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 18.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 41.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.4% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 21.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 11.9%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.0% of the area while parks, green belts and