Historic Cities · France
Annecy through the ages
Annecy is the prefecture and largest city of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy, 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Geneva, Switzerland.
Annecy in 1610
The Savoy Lake Town
Annecy in 1610 is the small Savoyard capital of the Genevois, a lakeside clerical centre of the Counter‑Reformation where the bishop's voice threads through the town's canals. Visitors will see the Palais de l'Île slicing the Thiou, arcaded streets and market stalls, tanners and millers working the sluices, and the castle of the Genevois‑Nemours dukes above the roofs.
Stone houses with steep slate roofs cluster between the glass‑green lake and the low hill of the château; the narrow streets are a mix of ochre lime‑wash and exposed timber, pierced by arcades and small bridges. The Palais de l'Île sits like a ship's prow in the Thiou, while the canals — Vassé, Saint‑Dominique and the Thiou — carry wooden mills, sluices, washing steps and the pale reflections of Semnoz and La Tournette.
The route: 15 streets, squares and views
Lac d'Annecy — North Shore → Quai Sainte‑Claire → Porte Sainte‑Claire → Rue Sainte‑Claire → Place Sainte‑Claire → Palais de l'Île → Thiou at the Palais → Canal du Vassé and Mills → Canal de Saint‑Dominique → Tanners' Washing Steps → …
Step inside, 9 interiors
Common Room of the Lakeside Inn · Island Courthouse Chamber · Boatwright's Workshop · Stone Mill Wheel Chamber · Tannery Loft over the Thiou · Arcaded Market Hall · Nave of Saint‑Maurice Cathedral · Cloister Refectory · Genevois‑Nemours Great Chamber
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Annecy.
From the archive
Annecy on paper: the old town as it was mapped.
A period plan or bird's-eye view of the old town, drawn between 1500 and 1850 — the streets this page's reconstructions walk. Public domain, with its source named.
Bird's-eye view of Annecy, from Nouum Theatrum Pedemonti et Sabaudiae (1651)
Engraved bird's-eye of the walled old town showing streets and gates, the château on its promontory and the Lac d'Annecy shoreline.
1651 · Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla · Wikimedia Commons
Public domain (plate dated 1651)
Castles of Annecy
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