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

Last modified: 2005-06-03 by ivan sache
Keywords: haute-savoie | thonon-les-bains | cross (white) | societe nautique du leman francais | letters: snlf (black) |
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by Ivan Sache

• Presentation of Thonon
  • Early history of Thonon
  • Thonon under the Dukes Amédées
  • Thonon and the Counter-Reformation
  • Thonon under the French Revolution and the First Empire
  • Thonon after the incorporation of Savoy to France
• Municipal flag of Thonon
• Société Nautique du Léman Français

See also:

• France
• Haute-Savoie (Department, France)

Presentation of Thonon

Thonon-les-Bains (30,000 inhabitants) is a sous-préfecture of the department of Haute-Savoie, located on the southern shore of lake Léman. Thonon is the capital city of the traditional province of Chablais, the northernmost province of Savoy, which was highly disputed between the Catholics and the Protestants after the Reformation. The city is built on a kind of terrace dominating the lakeshore, on which the borough and port of Rives was built later.

This presentation is mostly based on the booklet Histoire de Thonon et des principaux châteaux du Chablais, undated but released in the early 1980s and unfortunately out of print. The booklet was written for the tourism office of Thonon by the local historians Joseph Ticon, Bernard Crola, Marcel Sauthier and Claude Sache.

Early history of Thonon

At the end of the Age of Stone (Magdalenian), Chablais was mostly covered by the glacier of Rhône and a thin steppe. No remains of Magdalenian hunters have been found in the area but a mammoth tusk was discovered in 1885 near Bellevaux. It is the masterpiece of the Musée du Chablais, housed in the castle of Sonnaz, close to the city hall of Thonon.
Human colonization became significant in the second half of the fourth millenium BC. The oldest remains found in Chablais have been related to the Cortaillod civilization, which radiated southwards from Switzerland. Several early lakeside villages have been identified in Chablais. In 1862, two lakeside stations were discovered during the revamping of the port of Thonon and of the borough of Rives. Those stations were an early Neolithic station and a bigger one dating back to the late Age of Bronze. The latter station was built on piles and stretched over a 140 x 40 m area. The level of the lake significantly varied through the ages and it is believed today that the lakeside stations were built on the shore and not directly over the waters of the lake.

During the Age of Iron, Chablais was inhabited by the Allobroges, a Gaul tribe living in Savoy and