Evian-les-Bains (Municipality, Haute-Savoie, France)

Last modified: 2005-06-17 by ivan sache
Keywords: haute-savoie | evian-les-bains | fish (white) | cross (white) | letters: cae (red) |
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by Arnaud Leroy

• Presentation of Evian
  • Early history
  • The golden age
  • The water production
  • The Evian agreement (accords d'Evian)
  • Evian in literature
• Municipal flag of Evian
• Club de l'Aviron d'Evian

See also:

• France
• Haute-Savoie (Department, France)

Presentation of Evian

Evian-les-Bains (7,000 inhabitants) is a city located on the southern shore of lake Léman, 10 km east of Thonon-les-Bains, the main French city on the Lake Leman, and 17 km west of the village of Saint-Gingolph which constitutes the Franco-Swiss border. The wide delta of the river Dranse was in the past a kind of natural border that isolated Evian from the rest of Savoy and made traffic extremely difficult, especially in summer. The building of a new bridge and new roads solved the problem.

Early history

There were early Celtic and Roman settlements in Evian, but the city was developed much later by the Dukes of Savoy, who fortified it. Until 1865, Evian was a small fortified city with its walls bathed in the lake. The church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, built in the XIIIth century (early Savoyard Gothic style) was also fortified and projected into the lake.

Most French thermal spas were built on ancient Gallo-Roman thermae. Evian is one of the exceptions, since the thermal baths were opened only in the XVIIIth century. Since the XVIIth century, the Dukes of Savoy took the iron-bearing waters in Amphion, a village located between Evian and Thonon, now part of the municipality of Publier, but Evian remained ignored.
However, the name of Evian is related with water. It comes most probably from a Celtic or pre-Celtic root meaning water, and was written Aviano in 1150, Yvians in 1268. Local pencil pushers invented the Latin form Aquianum in the Middle Ages.

In 1789, Marquis of Lessert, a country squire from Auvergne, suffering from his kidneys and liver, took the waters in Amphion, to no avail. During a trip in Evian, he drank water from the St. Catherine's source, which gushed forth in Mr. Cachat's garden. The marquis felt better and promoted the 'miraculous' source, which was rapidly recommended by doctors. Mr. Cachat wisely enclosed his garden and started selling the water.

The golden age

The first private bathing resort in Evian was opened in 1826 by the Swiss banker François Fauconnet. Since he was a foreigner, he needed a permit, w