Chambéry is a French commune located in the Savoie department in
the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Located in the Northern Prealps
between the Bauges and Chartreuse massifs, at the confluence of the
Leysse and Albanne then Hyères, the city is the current prefecture
of Savoy, as well as the seat of a court of appeal and an
archdiocese. With a municipal population of 59,490 inhabitants in
2014, Chambéry ranks 91st nationally.
The city is nicknamed
the “City of the Dukes” because acquired by the House of Savoy in
1232, it became the political capital of the Counts of Savoy in 1295
when the castle was purchased and the official establishment of the
Resident Council1, then Duchy of Savoy from 1416 until its transfer
to Turin in 1562. Chambéry nevertheless remains the historic capital
of the States of Savoy. Thanks to the mastery of the great alpine
passes and the road to Italy, which earned them the nickname of
Portiers des Alpes, the counts, then dukes of Savoy, who became
kings of Sardinia in 1718, exercised a certain influence in Europe,
in particular by establishing a veritable laboratory of “enlightened
absolutism”. From 1792 to 1815 and since 1860, the city is part of
France.
Marked by late industrialization, the city's economy
has long relied on the presence of administrations and the army. Its
historic center was partially destroyed during the bombings of May
1944. Since its merger with two rural municipalities and the
creation of new districts and industrial zones in the 1950s and
1960s, Chambéry has experienced strong demographic growth. The
presence of the Savoie-Mont-Blanc University, established in 1979,
also brought Chambéry a large university population.
Château de Chambéry
The castle of the Dukes of Savoy or Château de Chambéry is an old
fortified castle, from the eleventh century, which stands in the
town of Chambéry in the Savoie department in the
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Modified several times since the
thirteenth century, it has retained since that date an
administrative vocation. From 1502 to 1578, the chapel of the castle
housed the Shroud. In its bell tower, is currently installed a large
carillon called "Saint-François de Sales" composed of 70 bells, the
work of the Paccard foundry in SévrierNote 1. A concert takes place
the first and third Saturday of each month at 5.30 pm.
The
castle now houses the services of the Prefecture of Savoy, the
departmental council of Savoy and the Académie de Savoie. In terms
of historical monuments: the former castle of the Dukes of Savoy is
classified by decree of August 10, 1881, the large living room
decorated with Louis XVI decor is classified by decree of April 20,
1960.
Fontaine des Éléphants/ Elephant fountain
The fountain of the Elephants, historically called the Column of Boigne and today more simply called "the Elephants" or nicknamed "the four without asses", is a fountain located in the town of Chambéry, in the French department of Savoie in the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Erected in 1838 in honor of General-Count de Boigne, the fountain is today one of the city's most famous monuments. It has been classified as a historical monument since May 7, 1982.
Historic center - 15th century
Museum of Fine Arts - Savoy
museum (local history), Charmettes museum (dedicated to Jean-Jacques
Rousseau).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Carré Curial Media Library, BP
40208, 73002 Chambéry Cedex - Accessible, without assistance, to
people with reduced mobility, the building, designed by architect
Aurelio Galfetti, has long represented a technical feat with its
glass and curved facade. Attached to the Carré Curial and the Espace
Malraux, it is a center of culture and heritage which preserves a
very rich collection of old books.
Several contemporary buildings
(Espace Malraux, Médiathèque, Le Manège, Cité des Arts).
Les
Charmettes (Maison de Jean-Jacques Rousseau) 890 Chemin des
Charmettes (Line 26), +334 79 33 39 44 10 am-6pm. Free entry. -
Jean-Jacques Rousseau stays in the valley of Charmettes with Madame
de Warens between 1736 and 1742. He describes this place in books V
and VI of the Confessions and in the tenth of Rêveries du promenade
solitaire.
By plane
Chambéry has an airport (Bourget-du-Lac) with regular
connections. Lyon Saint-Exupéry International Airport is less than
an hour's drive away. TGV or direct bus between Lyon airport and
Chambéry bus station. Grenoble-Isère airport is one hour away.
Chambéry - Savoie Airport (IATA: CMF) Viviers-du-Lac, Logo
indicating a telephone number +33 4 79 54 49 54, fax: +33 4 79 54 49
50, email:
accueil@chambery-airport.com
By train
Chambéry is
directly connected by TGV to Paris (3 hours) and by regional trains
with all the main cities in the region.
Chambéry station -
Challes-les-Eaux Place de la Gare 73010 Chambéry
By car
Chambéry is linked by motorway to
Lyon via A43 to the west
Grenoble via A41 to the south
Aix-les-Bains, Annecy and Geneva
via A41 north
Turin in Italy via A43 and the Fréjus tunnel to the
east
By bus
STAC urban bus network
By bike
Bike rental at
the Vélostation (at the SNCF station)
The town is at 270 m at the foot of the Savoy Alps. Not far away are
the Chartreuse Regional Nature Park to the south-west and the Bauges
Massif Regional Nature Park to the north-east, with which the commune is
associated as an access point. To the south are the vineyards of the
Coteaux de la Combe de Savoie, to the north is Lac du Bourget, four
kilometers from Chambéry, and to the west is the smaller Lac
d'Aiguebelette.
Lac du Bourget is the largest natural lake in
France and is largely fed by the Leysse River, which crosses the urban
area from south to north.
In the center of Chambéry is the Place
Saint-Léger with many representative houses, mainly from the 18th
century. Originally, these buildings were built around a small island
formed by the Albanne River. In the second half of the 19th century the
Albanne was relocated, so that the area of the square was gained in the
city. Today, the Albanne (the name means “the white one”) flows a little
further east into the Leysse. West of the city center, the Hyère flows
into the Leysse.
Since the first half of the 19th century, the
Rue de Boigne has led right through the city center. It was created in
the course of the so-called Haussmannisation and broke through the
small-scale urban structures and brought upscale residential and
commercial buildings to the old town. The road leads from the river
crossing over the Leysse in a straight line to Chambéry Castle.
In the large urban area outside the old town there are several suburbs
and villages. The city consists of the quarters:
Biollay: Hospital,
Maché
Bissy: Challot, Chamoux, Charrière-Neuve, la Labiaz, les
Landiers, Z.I. bissy
Centre: Angleterre, Bellevue, la Cassine, le
Covet, la Gare, le Grand Verger, Montjay, le Stade
Laurier:
Buisson-Rond, Curial, les Charmettes, Joppet, Lemenc, les Monts, Merande
Chambéry-le-Vieux: Les Bois, le Carré, le Fromaget, Morraz, Putigny,
Saint-Ombre
Hauts-de-Chambéry: Beauvoir, Chantemerle, les
Châtaigniers, la Chenavière, les Combes, la Croix-Rouge, le Mollard, le
Piochet, Pugnet.
In the current urban geography of Savoy, thanks
to the regional settlement and economic development, one speaks of the
interconnected area of the "Basin of Chambéry", which, in addition to
the central city, also includes the municipalities of Barberaz, Bassens,
Cognin, Jacob-Bellecombette, La Motte-Servolex, La Ravoire, Saint
-Alban-Leysse, Sonnaz and Aix-les-Bains.
The Romans already had a settlement on the site of today's Chambéry,
which they called Lemencum. Chambéry first appears in documents as
Camberiacum in 1029 and was an independent county from the 11th to the
13th century. In 1232 it was acquired by Count Thomas I of Savoy, who
gave the residents important privileges. Count Amadeus V made Chambéry
capital of the County of Savoy in 1295, a status it retained until 1563.
The Dukes of Savoy, after acquiring it in 1453 from a descendant of
Geoffroy de Charny, kept the Shroud of Turin intermittently in Chambéry
and finally permanently in the Sainte-Chapelle of Chambéry from 1502 to
1578. The shroud was damaged in the fire in the Sainte-Chapelle on
December 4, 1532 and has since had the burn holes visible today. In
1578, Duke Emanuel Philibert of Savoy had the relics transferred from
Chambéry to the Turin Cathedral in his new residence city of Turin.
Between 1536 and 1713, Chambéry was repeatedly occupied by the
French. The Treaty of Utrecht restored it to Savoy. In 1730, King Victor
Amadeus II of Sardinia settled here after resigning from government. In
1742 Chambéry was conquered by a Franco-Spanish army. From 1792 to 1814,
the city was again under French rule and was the capital of the
Mont-Blanc department. Had the First Peace of Paris of May 30, 1814 left
Chambéry with France; so it came back to Sardinia in the Second Peace of
Paris of November 20, 1815. In 1860 it was finally ceded to France with
Savoy.
During World War II, Chambéry train station was a target
of the US bombings on May 26, 1944. Because of the large scattering,
numerous bombs fell on the city center as well, destroying three hundred
buildings; 120 people died and more than 300 were injured.
In
1961, the city merged with the former neighboring municipalities of
Bissy (Savoie) and Chambéry-le-Vieux.
In 2020, Thierry Repentin was elected mayor by the left-wing LDVG list. He won against Conservative incumbent Michel Dantin, who had held the post since 2014.