Faucigny

Faucigny
View of Faucigny from the castle View of Faucigny from the castle
Coat of arms of Faucigny Coat of arms
Faucigny
Location within Rhône-Alpes region Faucigny
Coordinates:
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Haute-Savoie
Arrondissement	Bonneville
Canton	Bonneville
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes des Quatre Rivières
Government
• Mayor (2008–2014)	Bernard Chatel
Area1	4.91 km2 (1.90 sq mi)
Population (1999)2	413
• Density	84/km2 (220/sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code	74122 / 74130
Elevation	477–1,002 m (1,565–3,287 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Faucigny is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.

Historically, Faucigny was a region in Savoy which included the area of the modern département of Haute Savoie and the municipalities of Chamonix, Argentière, and Les Houches.

Geography

In the Faucigny region, the Arve River flows through the low-lying, agricultural Arve Valley. The village of Faucigny is at an elevation of approximately 639 m., northeast of La Roche-sur-Foron, and about 20 km. southeast of the city of Geneva. The village lies on a river terrace on the eastern side of the Arve Valley.

History

The fertile valley of the Arve and the area around Faucigny were already settled in neolithic times, and there are numerous Roman ruins. Legend suggests that the area was the estates of the Roman family Falcinius. It was known by various names in the Middle Ages: Falciniacum, Fociniacum and Fossiniacum, but the first documented name was Fulciniaco. Around 930 a castle was built on a rocky promintory overlooking the Arve. The castle was the regional governmental seat from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. The barons of Faucigny dominated the valley of the Arve and its tributary the Giffre, the Arly as far as Flumet, and the valley of Doron de Beaufort (Beaufortain). During this time, suzerainty over Faucigny was contested between the House of Savoy and the Dauphin de Viennois. In 1253, Pierre II of Savoy acquired Faucigny by marrying Agnès, the daughter of the Baron de Faucigny. Their daughter, Béatrix, inherited the province in 1268. Béatrix married Guigues VII and the lands came under the Dauphin de Viennois. Savoy fought to regain the Faucigny region, but was unsuccessful and Faucigny became part of France in 1349 as part of the purchase from Humbert II de La Tour du Pin, Dauphin de Viennois of the Dauphiné lands. Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy, challenged this purchase and defeated the French in 1354. Then Faucigny was transferred to the House of Savoy as part of the peace Treaty of Paris (1355). Recently Faucigny has come up in the news again as twelve cars were burned in the 2005 French riots.

Twin towns — Sister cities

Faucigny is twinned with:

• Camandona, Italy (2011)

See also

• Communes of the Haute-Savoie department

References

• INSEE
• Collectif (1998), Découvrir l'Histoire de la Savoie, Centre de la Culture Savoyarde
• Dictionnaire d'Amboise. Pays de Savoie. Editions Amboise. 1989. 2e édition

External links

• Gazetteer Entry for Faucigny
• Faucigny website