Payerne (; ) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud. It was the seat of the district of Payerne, and is now part of the district of Broye-Vully. The German name Peterlingen for the town is out of use. History The earliest traces of settlements near Payerne include Neolithic objects and traces of a Bronze Age settlement. There are also burial mounds from the Hallstatt and Latène cultures, including gold necklaces which were found at Le Bois de Roverex. There was a Celtic bridge and a Roman era road in the area of Les Aventuri. There were Roman buildings within and outside the city walls, Roman cemeteries, and a dedicatory inscription of Publius Graccius Paternus. During the Early Middle Ages, the village of Payerne first appeared. In 587, Bishop Marius built the villa Paterniacum and a Chapel to St. Mary in the village. The chapel later developed into a parish church. The present Gothic building was built in the 14th century over Roman foundations. It was renovated in the 1990s. In the 10th century, the Cluniac Payerne Priory was founded. In 1033, Emperor Conrad II was crowned as the King of Burgundy in the priory church. Payerne is first mentioned in 961 as ecclesie sancte Marie Paterniacensis though this comes from a 12th-century copy of the older document. In 1049 it was mentioned as in loco Paterniaco. The town was formerly known by its German name Peterlingen. Before 1302 the prior granted the citizens the right to establish a council and create a seal. In 1348 the council created a town charter which was formally recognized. The leader of the town's Council of Twelve also served as the mayor and the town military leader or Bannerherr. In the 16th century a second twelve-member council (rière conseil) appeared, to handle trade disputes for which it was not necessary to call together all citizens and nobles. The citizenry and the monastery were often in conflict with each other. The town concluded treaties with Bern (1344), Fribourg (1349), the count of Neuchâtel (1355) and Murten (1364). In 1362 a hospital was built in the town. In 1395, a schoolmaster was mentioned, and in 1449 there was a secondary school. After the conquest of Vaud in 1536, the town was granted a privileged legal position by Bern. The Schultheiss, who represented the Bernese interests, was a citizen of Payern, not a Bernese