Annecy-le-Vieux () is a former

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Haute-Savoie Haute-Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè d'Amont'' or ''Hiôta-Savouè''; en, Upper Savoy) or '; it, Alta Savoia. is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its prefecture is Ann ...

department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

in southeastern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the commune Annecy.Arrêté préfectoral
14 July 2016 It was the fourth-largest commune in Haute-Savoie in terms of population, and is located on the northeastern shore of

Lake Annecy Lake Annecy (french: Lac d'Annecy, ) is a perialpine lake in Haute-Savoie in France. It is named after the city of Annecy, which marks the start of the Thiou, Lake Annecy's outflow river.Jean-Daniel Stanley and Thomas F. Jorstad, ''Direct Sedime ...

. It is essentially a residential suburb of Annecy, being less than 3 km from its centre, and is sometimes known at the "

16th arrondissement The 16th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''seizième''. The arrondissement includes part of the Arc de Tr ...

" of Annecy. The last mayor of Annecy-le-Vieux was Bernard Accoyer, who served from 1989 until December 2016. A doctor by profession, he is also the député of the district and has been president of the UMP group in the

Assemblée nationale The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are know ...

since 2002.

Geography

The commune is 50% urbanised with 33 hectares of public forest, and 50% agricultural and forests. The commune is located on the foothills of Mount Veyrier (1,291 m), on a moraine at the junction of two old large glaciers. The

Fier Fier (; sq-definite, Fieri) is the seventh most populous city of the Republic of Albania and seat of Fier County and Fier Municipality. It is situated on the bank of Gjanica River in the Myzeqe Plain between the Seman in the north, the Vjos ...

forms most of the commune's northern border.

History

The shores of Lake Annecy have been occupied since at least 4000 BCE. A

Gallic tribe The Gauls ( la, Galli; grc, Γαλάται, ''Galátai'') were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). They spo ...

, the

Allobroges The Allobroges (Gaulish: *''Allobrogis'', 'foreigner, exiled'; grc, Ἀλλοβρίγων, Ἀλλόβριγες) were a Gallic people dwelling in a large territory between the Rhône river and the Alps during the Iron Age and the Roman period. ...

, occupied the area in pre-Roman times: the Allobroges were conquered by the

Roman legion The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period o ...

s in 62 BCE. The area was then colonised by Rome, which founded the town of Boutae (later Annecy) in 50 BCE. The town was at a strategic crossroads of three Roman roads across the Alps (to Italy, to Geneva, and to Vienna), and grew rapidly to a population of several thousand.

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

s are found in the surrounding countryside. Annecy was attacked by invaders in the post-Roman period, but regained its importance from CE 1107. Its population had grown to 470 inhabitants by 1756. Grape vines for producing wine have been cultivated on the surrounding hills since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Various artists lived in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including

Eugène Sue Marie-Joseph "Eugène" Sue (; 26 January 18043 August 1857) was a French novelist. He was one of several authors who popularized the genre of the serial novel in France with his very popular and widely imitated ''The Mysteries of Paris'', whic ...

, Adolphe de Custine,

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

and Gabriel Fauré. Two principal industrial activities arose in the mid-19th century, the Cléchet flour mill and the Paccard Bell Foundry. One of largest bells in the world, "La Savoyarde" which hangs at the Sacré-Cœur in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, was cast in Annecy-le-Vieux in 1891. It weighs 18,835 kg, stands 3.06 m tall, has a

circumference In geometry, the circumference (from Latin ''circumferens'', meaning "carrying around") is the perimeter of a circle or ellipse. That is, the circumference would be the arc length of the circle, as if it were opened up and straightened out t ...

of 9.60 m, is 22 cm thick at the base, and has a clapper weighing 850 kg. At the end of the 19th century, attacks of

mildew Mildew is a form of fungus. It is distinguished from its closely related counterpart, mould, largely by its colour: moulds appear in shades of black, blue, red, and green, whereas mildew is white. It appears as a thin, superficial growth consi ...

and phylloxera almost completely destroyed the grape vines. Wine cultivation was replaced by dairy production. Annecy includes a university site, attached to the Université de Savoie, with more than 4,000 students in 2003. The university offers programs in technology, commercial arts and trades, engineering, and

particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...

Tourism

Attractions include the beach Annecy-le-Vieux, boating on Lake Annecy, walking in the hills, including Mount Rampon (957 m), Mount Veyrier (1291 m) and Mount Rampignon (894 m). Annual events include the ''Ancilevienne'', a race for teams of runners and cyclists around Lake Annecy, and the Gabriel Fauré music festival.

Twin towns

Dori, Burkina Faso Dori (also known as Winde or Wendu) is a town in northeastern Burkina Faso, near the border of Niger. It is located at around . It is the capital of Sahel Region and has a population of 46,512 (2019). The main ethnic group is the Fula (Fulani) bu ...

References

External links