Sallanches

Sister cities

• Spaichingen

History

In spite of the ancient etymology of the name of the city, no remnants exist of a Gallo-Roman site. In excavations from 1992, only two tombs characteristic of the 5th - 6th centuries were discovered in the basement of the church. Until the end of the 13th century, the small town developed as a religious and economic center of the region. Since the 14th century its church, erected as a collegiate church, extended its jurisdiction over many parishes around the course of the Revolution. Sallanches had two convents: the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin founded in 1619 and the Ursulines from 1630; they disappeared in the turmoil of the French Revolution. In 1310, first franchises for selling agricultural products manufactured by the city's craftsmen on the weekly market were granted to its inhabitants. This communal code was at the origin of the prosperity of the city and the establishment of noble families who built castles and fortresses. Throughout this period, the fate of Sallanches was linked to that of the province of Faucigny, since 1355 in possession of the House of Savoy at the origin of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (1718). Sallanches experienced seven major fires: on 14 April 1520, on 29 November 1669, on 20 January 1696, on 9 February 1768, on 13 November 1773, on 19 April 1783 and on 19 April 1840. The seventh fire ravaged the city for at least three hours, destroying 268 houses out of the 273 of the town- the historic town was destroyed. After the period of the French occupation during the French Revolution (Sallanches was the capital of a judicial district under the Directionoire) and the First Empire (France), from 1792 to 1814, the Sardinian monarchy was restored. At the beginning of the 19th century, the religious influence of the city regressed. It…

Geography

Sallanches is a commune located in the far east of France in the Arve Valley of the historical region of Savoy. The town is located close to the Swiss and Italian borders. The town occupies the northern part of the Sallanches basin, a large glacial plain crossed by the Arve and bordered by the Aravis Range, the Mont Blanc massif and the Faucigny massif. The vast basin with low steep slopes contrasts with the high peaks that surround it. Sallanches is dominated to the west by part of the Aravis Range, in particular the summit of the Quatre Têtes (2364 m) and La Miaz (2336m). The town is bordered in the north by Magland, the northwest Le Reposoir, in the west by the ski resort Le Grand-Bornand, in the southwest by Cordon, Haute-Savoie,, in the south by La Giettaz, in the southeast by Combloux and Megève, and in the east by Passy and Domancy. The area is dedicated mainly to agriculture and tourism (due to its lakes, offering campsites). Sallanches is served by the A40 autoroute Mâcon-Chamonix motorway, allowing Sallanchards to reach Annemasse in 35 minutes, Annecy or Geneva in less than 50 minutes, and Lyon or Grenoble in less than two hours. Sallanches is connected to the national motorway network (link A40-A41, A40-A6...). Until 2009, Sallanches had only a half-exchange, preventing the population from travelling by the motorway to Chamonix, a source of regular congestion in the city. The interchange was completed in September 2009. The city is crossed by two former national roads, departmentalized since 2006: RD 1212 (ex-RN 212) Sallanches-Albertville, and RD 1205 (ex-RN 205) Bonneville-Chamonix. As of 2024, the city remains little connected to a public transport network, apart from the rail network and the inter-urban network: Sallance has a railway station, , on…

Most-observed species

• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,012
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,903
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,801
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,781
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,674
• Black Redstart

  Phoenicurus ochruros (S.G.Gmelin, 1774) · Aves
  1,609
• Common Buzzard

  Buteo buteo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,420
• Coal Tit

  Periparus ater (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,392

Most recent

• M 3.6 — 2026-01-12
  4 km SSW of Les Houches, France
• M 3.3 — 2025-05-06
  8 km W of Chapareillan, France
• M 3.2 — 2024-05-09
  9 km SW of Evolène, Switzerland
• M 3.3 — 2022-09-25
  7 km ESE of Ar?ches-la-Frasse, France
• M 2.7 — 2022-08-23
  4 km S of Turtmann, Switzerland
• M 4.5 — 2022-03-12
  3 km S of Faverges, France