Allevard

Allevard

Allevard and the lake

Coat of arms
Allevard

Coordinates: 45°23′40″N 6°04′29″E / 45.3944°N 6.0747°E / 45.3944; 6.0747Coordinates: 45°23′40″N 6°04′29″E / 45.3944°N 6.0747°E / 45.3944; 6.0747
Country France
Region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department Isère
Arrondissement Grenoble
Canton Allevard
Intercommunality Pays du Grésivaudan
Government
  Mayor (20082020) Philippe Langénieux-Villard
Area1 26 km2 (10 sq mi)
Population (2009)2 3,768
  Density 140/km2 (380/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code 38006 / 38580
Elevation 399–2,749 m (1,309–9,019 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.

Allevard, (also known as Allevard-les-Bains) is a French commune in the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Allevardins or Allevardines or alternatively as Allevardais or Allevardaises [1]

The commune has been awarded two flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of Cities and Villages in Bloom.[2]

Geography

Allevard is located in the Belledonne mountains 40 km south-east of Chambéry and 38 km north-east of Grenoble. The commune is accessed by the D525 from Goncelin in the south-west following the mountain ridge through the village and continuing north-east to La Chapelle-du-Bard. There are also some minor roads such as the D9 parallel to the D525 going to the north and the D108 which accesses the village from the D525. There is a tortuous mountain road - the D109 - which goes east of the village and eventually circles back to the north of the commune. The town has quite a large urban area in the west of the commune however the rest of the commune is mountainous and heavily forested.[3]

The Bourg stream forms the southern boundary of the commune flowing west and the Buisson forms the northern boundary also flowing west. These streams together with numerous other streams flow into the Breda which flows north through the commune then west to join the Isère near Pontcharra.

Localities and hamlets

There are several hamlets and localities in the commune. These are:

  • Les Ayettes
  • Bajin
  • Le Bessey
  • Le Bugnon
  • Clarabout
  • Le Clos
  • Le Closy-Jolie-Vue
  • Le Colombet
  • Le Colombier
  • Côte Chevrets
  • Cottard
  • Le Crozet
  • Le Cuchet
  • Le David
  • L'Epeluat
  • L'Epinette
  • Le Glapigneux
  • Grange Merle
  • Grange Neuve
  • Le Guillet
  • Le Jeu de Paume
  • Montouvrard
  • La Morarde
  • Moret
  • L'Oursière
  • Les Panissières
  • Les Perrières
  • Pommier
  • La Ratz
  • Le Replat
  • La Retourdière
  • La Ronzière
  • La Tour du Treuil
  • Vaugraine

Neighbouring communes and villages

History

Heraldry

The coat of arms is derived from the arms of François de Barral,[4] ironmaster and lord of the country in the 17th century. They come from the Chambarran family who were gentlemen glassmakers from the distaff side of the noble Barral family. The bells refer to the three parishes were under their jurisdiction.[5] The "old" Barral family who were the lords of the Tower of Treuil wore "Or, 3 barrels in sable".[6]

Blazon:
Gules, three bends argent, in chief the same charged with 3 bells azure with clappers of Or.

The Middle Ages to modern times

Allevard Castle stood above the town on a hill surrounded by a wall 60 toises long and described: "and water flowed from the Breyda and partly from the Sabaudie". The village was also fortified. Its enclosure was 1413 toises accessible through four doors. It was first mentioned in 1100. A large house on the edge of town, near Vingtain[7] and the mill canals in 1367. A quoted recollection: "meniis Curtina et clausura".

It also noted "quaddam hospitium seu fortalicium sum et domum fortem que situatur infra villam de alarvardo" in 1367 about an ancient tower and fortified house belonging to Guillaume Barral which connected the ditches of the city in 1393[8]

In the Middle Ages Allevard was the seat of a lordship. The survey of 1339 reported the existence of a large house in a place called the "Bâtie d'Arvillard": "Castrum Bastide alti villaris" (ADI B 4443, folio 14).[9] Located on a mound dominating the Allevard valley for 100 m, the site is naturally protected on three sides by cliffs. On the accessible side a hummock bars the way. The survey states: "Dictum autem castrum situatum est in quodam altissimo molare valde eminente et deffensabile"(the castle is located on a very high mound with a great height and easy to defend). The lords gave the people of Allevard many exemptions successively modified by the franchise charter from the university in 1315 and in 1337. Until 1558 these charters were, depending on the financial needs of the crown, more or less respected by the kings of France. In 1558 Henry II committed to sell, subject to possible repurchase, the land of Allevard. In 1644, the "Engagiste" Lord of Allevard was called Thomas Chabo of Saint Maurice, a Savoyard noble. His son, Charles, was Ambassador of Savoy to the Court of Versailles. Charles subrogated the sale to François de Barral (1625–1699) who was advisor to the Parliament of the Dauphiné - the son of Gaspard, a lawyer and adviser to the Queen mother and to Mary Vignon, and the wife of [10] François de Bonne, Constable of France. Gaspard de Barral already owned a steel mill near Renage and iron mines on the mountain of Saint-Pierre d'Allevard.

The Barral family era

The Barral family were influential and powerful as they were related to the Ponat, Virieu, and Tencin families who were richly established in Voironnais and Saint-Aupre. Under François Barral de Clermont (1625–1699) major work was undertaken in the small and very unhealthy walled town of Allevard: "The people are piled up in old unhealthy houses and without comfort or usual support. The streets are unpaved, narrow, and winding with mud kept wet with the dampness which favoured epidemics and the emergence or persistence of goiter" (Bouffier 1846). The construction of the first stone bridge dates from 1688 and the renovation of the old church plus the redevelopment of the former castle were completed between 1692 and 1693. The first opening in the south wall of the city followed. François de Barral de Clermont, the uncle of the famous Tencin died in 1699 as the Dean of the Parliament of Grenoble.

In 1751 the King established the territory of Allevard under his command under the name of the County of Barral as a perpetual lordship for Jean-Baptiste de Barral (1709–1785).

Paulin de Barral 17 (1745–1822), his grandson, was the last lord of Allevard and of Jaligny in Bourbonnais who sold at a loss his castle and his factories in 1817 to A.B. Champel AB.[11]

The iron industry

Allevard was an important centre for metallurgy and for the quality of its steel products until the early 20th century. There is a legend, created from the text of Suetonius and Polybius, which claims that Hannibal went to Allevard to manufacture his weapons. The history of Allevard is closely linked to the alpine steel industry. In 1450, Pierre and Arthur Boisson had a trip hammer in Allevard town which still existed in 1724. During a tour of the factory by special commissioners of the king in 1724 "it was determined to be the oldest of its kind in the kingdom" (E. Chabrand). Another Trip hammer at the same era was in operation in the village of Pinsot which is upstream on the Breda. A study of the remains indicated that the Allevard community had, between 1643 and 1727, a total of 76 works on the "Bredal" stream: 3 blast furnaces, 21 Trip hammers, 36 flour mills, 2 hemp beaters, 6 presses, 6 water-powered saws, 1 nail factory, and 1 fuller's earth plant. The steel industry was highly profitable because at the same time, the price per hundred kilos for the melting furnace - total production in Allevard was 54,255 kg - went from 4 livres 5 sols to 9 livres 10 sols.

For many years Allevard remained an industrial site of great importance under as the blacksmith lords of the Barral family who constantly sought to innovate with the advice of the engineer Binelli and Sir Pierre Clement Grignon, collaborator in the Encyclopédie of Diderot. In 1785, the Barral establishments employed around 300 foundrymen, 300 miners, and 200 colliers to which should be added 100 mule-drivers. Of these 900 workers, only 420 were directly employed by the factory. Others worked independently particularly the miners and colliers.

Shortly before the Revolution a major project to relocate the Royal Naval cannon foundry of Saint-Gervais in the valley of the Isere to Allevard was considered. Only the relative weakness in the supply of charcoal put off the government – there needed to be 36,000 loads of coal per year when all the Allevard and nearby Gresivaudan communities could provide was at most 15,000. The plant therefore became idle under the casual management of Paulin Barral, then of Messrs Champel – who received the Duchess of Berry in Allevard in 1829, then Giroud who were bankers and were soon bankrupted.

Fortunately in the 1840s, under the leadership of Eugène Charrière, production of the factories near Rives, which had been devoted only to cast iron, changed to puddled steel with which the forges could get the wholesale railway market for steel tyres, first welded, then the seamless tyres developed by engineer A. Pinat.[12] In 1867 steel production was 2,000 tonnes. At that time forges had a staff of 446 workers of which 80 were metal rollers. The customers were then 400 companies almost all French (Thiers, Saint-Etienne etc.) which increased to 1,300 customers in 1906 with a workforce of over 700 workers and a large increase in exports: Austria-Hungary, Germany, Belgium, and Italy. Allevard also partnered with some great groups just before the First World War (Firminy, Aulnoye, Batignolles, Commentary).[13]

It was also at Allevard that in 1859 some of the first armourplating for the frigate La Gloire were produced together with the companies Petetin de Saint Chamond and Laubenière of Rouen.

After the abandonment of cast iron from charcoal the forges converted to the Siemens process to manufacture steel, conserving for Allevard at the turn of the century: "their name and their place in the metallurgic world, to the satisfaction our dauphinois pride and for the benefit of our courageous working population" (Chabrand). At this time Allevard also had a silk factory employing a large female workforce - an establishment led by the Izoard family who were related to Aimé Bouchayer an industrialist and banker from Grenoble who quickly developed a major centre of tourism based on hydrotherapy.

Contemporary era

Old postcard showing the entrance to the Forges, served by the industrial railway as the beginning of the 20th century
The forges

Succeeding his father and his grandfather, Charles Pinat was the new ironmaster for Allevard at the turn of the century and former motive power engineer on the tramway of Lyon and ahead of his time directed the energy supply for his establishments from power generation through falls, dams, and power plants he planned to build along the course of the Breda. In 1917, during the First World War, the Allevard forges passed into the control of the Compagnie des forges et aciéries de la marine et d'Homécourt (Company of marine forges and steelworks and of Homécourt) (FAMH) under the guidance of Théodore Laurent. It was a time of great innovation - new hydro-electric developments on the Breda and concentration of production around springs, magnets, and ferro-alloys. The 1930 crisis significantly affected Allevard and severely restricted its production. In 1940, the defeat and catastrophic floods in the upper valley of Breda and even stopped all production for some time. Liberation marked the renewal of machinery (10,000 tons / year of rolled products) and a steady influx of immigrant workers on three industrial sites: The Gorge of Allevard - Champ Sappey, Saint-Pierre-d'Allevard, and Le Cheylas. Subsequent years would see the adoption of continuous casting and the unfortunate association with Ugine for the manufacture of magnets.[14] In 1973-1974 the completion of the power station of Moulins marked paradoxically the end of the forges from their home since the 15th century.

Nowadays, the development of the silicon industry and its derivatives near Grenoble has led to a growth of urbanism which imposes by its sprawl major changes in the landscape of the commune with other parts affected by agricultural abandonment and extensions of the forest.

Spa

Very early on famous people resided in Allevard to take the waters (for drinking or inhaling in common rooms) such as Alphonse Daudet (who took up three chapters of his novel, Numa Roumestan),[15] Henri-Frédéric Amiel, Frédéric Ozanam, Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale (son of Louis-Philippe from the family of Lucien Bonaparte and Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar during his exile in France).

Pierre Vellones and his sister at Allevard, 1909

The greatest customers of Allevard, however, since 1880[16] have been the politicians, preachers, speakers, and singers who come to "fix their voice". These include, among others, the actors Paul Mounet and Jean Mounet-Sully, the brothers Coquelin the elder and the younger, Félia Litvinne, Germaine Lubin, Georgette Leblanc; then later Jeanne Aubert, Cécile Sorel, and Damia who were singers; politicians such as Eugene Chevandier de Valdrome, Eugène Rouher, Charles Floquet, Édouard Herriot, Georges Picot (who died in 1909 at Allevard), Gustave Hervé, Alexandre Zévaès, Auguste Burdeau, and Senator Auguste Scheurer-Kestner in 1897 in the middle of the Dreyfus affair. There were also many other notable people: clerics such as Father Della Chiesa - the future Pope Benedict XV, Monseigneur Félix Dupanloup (Bishop of Orléans), the Genevan pastor Theodore Claparede, and the chief rabbi of France Isaïe Schwartz; preachers such as Joseph Gratry of the French Academy, and Father Jean-Léon Le Prevost; diplomats such as Camille Barrere, Count Vladimir Lamsdorf, Prince Pierre Wolkonsky, Count Zichy, and Prince Ypsilanti, the Roumanian mountaineer Prince Alexandre Bibesco; musicians such as Jules Massenet and Charles Lamoureux; photographers such as Nadar and the Lumière brothers; poets such as Lucie Delarue-Mardrus and Patrice de La Tour du Pin; musicologists such as Paul-Marie Masson and Emile Vuillermoz; painters such as Hippolyte Flandrin and Kees van Dongen; the novelists Germaine Acremant and Thyde Monnier; French academicians such as Victor de Laprade and René de La Croix de Castries; professors of medicine Louis Landouzy and Maxime Laignel-Lavastine; industrialists and financiers such as Pierre Dreyfus, Edward Molyneux, and Calouste Gulbenkian; Swiss bankers Pictet and Mornay; the chemist Joseph Bienaimé Caventou; the feminist Arria Ly who worked at the local newspaper, Chronicle of Allevard-les-Bains led by Dr. Boel in 1903,[17] Dr. Edmond Locard (a nephew of Dr. Niepce the Director of the Spa); the designer Jacques Faizant; the architect Henri Révoil; President Ferhat Abbas, the family of President Habib Bourguiba, and Admiral Muselier are among other celebrities who have been regulars of the spa.[18]

The Spa is effective, discreet, and very popular with entertainers - "Coming here is not for show but to heal and rest" (Dr. Revillet-Laure). Since 1936 Allevard has been popular with other clients thanks in particular to ENT and lung treatments for children which was initiated by Dr. Jean Langénieux.

Finally it was in 1994 that a new spa building opened for the care and cure of rheumatology which revived the first indications in 1838 by Dr. Laurent Chataing, the first inspector of waters. Since then the station has sought to open proposed new anti-stress treatments and also treatments for fibromyalgia.

Administration

List of Successive Mayors[19]

Mayors from 1935
From To Name Party Position
1935 1941 Marcel Dumas Rad-Soc Carrier
1941 1944 Jean Langénieux Doctor
1944 1944 Alfred Couronné Upoholsterer
1944 1964 Marcel Dumas Rad-Soc Carrier, VP of the General Council
1964 1983 Joseph Casserra Butcher
1983 1989 Philippe Bouffard Doctor
1989 2020 Philippe Langenieux-Villard RPR/UMP/DVD Regional councillor, MP, then General Councillor

(Not all data is known)

Twinning

Allevard has twinning associations with:[20]

Demography

In 2009 the commune had 3,768 inhabitants. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known through the population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. From the 21st century, a census of communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants is held every five years, unlike larger towns that have a sample survey every year.[Note 1]

Population Change (See database)
1793 1800 1806 1821 1831 1836 1841 1846 1851
2,281 2,056 2,258 2,455 2,690 2,599 2,638 2,128 2,638
1856 1861 1866 1872 1876 1881 1886 1891 1896
2,846 3,180 3,110 3,031 3,054 3,195 3,085 2,850 2,726
1901 1906 1911 1921 1926 1931 1936 1946 1954
2,546 2,560 2,715 2,577 2,514 2,571 2,601 2,538 2,515
1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2006 2009 -
2,384 2,478 2,565 2,391 2,558 3,081 3,571 3,768 -

Sources : Ldh/EHESS/Cassini until 1962, INSEE database from 1968 (population without double counting and municipal population from 2006)

Transport

The town of Allevard is served by the 6200 route of the departmental network called Transisère. It is also served by several bus routes by Gresivaudan with links including the Lycée Pierre Terrail (Pierre Terrail School) to Pontcharra and also to Goncelin railway station with timings corresponding with the TER network to the cities of Grenoble and Chambéry.

Sites and monuments

Civil heritage

Industrial heritage

The old tramway station of Pontcharra
Railway Viaduct in Allevard

Religious heritage

View of the church

Activities

Thermal cures

The first sulphur thermal spa treatments took place in 1813 but especially since 1848 under the tutelage of Dr. Bernard Niepce, the inspector of waters. The baths were operated originally by Pierre Villiot and the Bouvret-Rocour family and associates then from 1882 by the Compagnie Générale des Eaux minérales et Bains de Mer until it was redeemed in 1997 by the municipality and operated by SAEM Thermal. The operation runs today in a beautiful forested park surrounded by three thermal establishments with typical architecture from the 1890s until 1995. The Niepce building (1894) houses the "breathing" activities, the Villiot building (1992) receives patients with rheumatology; the Chardon building (1955) does not currently have thermal use.

Winter sports resort

View from the Collet d'Allevard
The Super Collet station (1,638m) in summer

The commune has a ski resort: the Collet d'Allevard which is located 10 km from the town (30 minutes drive). The altitude of the runs varies from 1,450m to 2,100m. The resort has 35 km of runs: 7 green, 6 blue, 5 red, and 3 black.

Created in 1955 on former communal grazing land reserved for summer pastures for the collective herds of the Allevard community, it is now served by a new route via the route of the old logging road across private land and the old royal delphinale forest. It reached its present size in 1975 and subsequent developments have primarily been to improve the existing domain.

Interesting features for those who go there:

Current equipment:

Another feature is that Collet d'Allevard is a first class paragliding site especially with its four official take-off points (Malatrait, Clos des Gentianes, Prérond, and Plagnes) each with different orientation.

Paragliding at Clos des Gentianes

Finally Collet d'Allevard offers one of the largest night ski areas in Europe covering the Malatrait and Fontaineterre sectors.

Casino

In accordance with the law of 1907 on casinos and gambling halls, the municipality of Allevard allowed the opening of a facility in May 1909. A company called "du Casino d'Allevard les Bains" was formed at that time for its operation. In 1925 the architect Guénard carried out a complete overhaul of the building and its original decoration. The guests can find all the classic fun of this kind of establishment (boule, roulette, baccarat and small theatre). The new Allevard casino opened in 1994 and changed ownership in 2000.

Sports

TTG (Grésivaudan Table Tennis Club), a Table Tennis Club for the communes of Le Touvet, Allevard, La Terrasse, and Lumbin.

Local event

Saint-Michel market - once a fair

Held on the nearest Thursday to 29 September, the date is linked to that of the descent from alpine pastures giving rise to a large festival day where the cows were decorated with leaves, wild flowers, and branches.[21] "At Saint-Michel the Allevardins pay their debts" to notaries who, on that day, officiate outside the doors of the inns. Those who could not fulfill them had an additional period of one month to finalise the debt (the "Return of Saint-Michel") before entering. The traditional dish always served in all restaurants on this occasion is the calf's head. "Allevard had the reputation of being a land of plenty. Foreigners were received with open arms and without ostentation. No party, no meeting had a place without dancing. The violins come out from the neighborhood and on special occasions from Grenoble ... Once a violin appears in Allevard people gathered in the house where it is received. Each brought his supper" (Bouffier 1846).

Notable people linked to the commune

See also

Bibliography

Notes

  1. At the beginning of the 21st century, the methods of identification have been modified by law No. 2002-276 of 27 February 2002 , the so-called "law of local democracy" and in particular Title V "census operations" which allow, after a transitional period running from 2004 to 2008, the annual publication of the legal population of the different French administrative districts. For municipalities with a population greater than 10,000 inhabitants, a sample survey is conducted annually, the entire territory of these municipalities is taken into account at the end of the period of five years. The first "legal population" after 1999 under this new law came into force on 1 January 2009 and was based on the census of 2006.

References

  1. Inhabitants of Isère (French)
  2. Allevard in the Competition for Towns and Villages in Bloom Archived December 10, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. (French)
  3. Google Maps
  4. Barral de Montouvrard: De gueules, à trois bandes d'argent, au chef du même, ch. de trois cloches d'azur, bataillées d'or. Couronne de comte ou de marquis. Devise: SIC PERSONAT VIRTUS.
    Source
    Johannes Rietstap, Armorial General, Volume 1 and Volume 2, Gouda, GB van Goor zonen, 1884-1887 (French)
  5. Provençal Vexillology, Grésivaudan
  6. Rivoire de La Bâtie, Armorial du Dauphiné, Lyon, 1862, page 44 (French)
  7. The word "Vingtain" comes from the name of a local tax of a "Twentieth" levied in the Middle Ages for the maintenance and repair of the city walls in Lyon.
  8. Élisabeth Sirot, Noble and strong house - The stately home in medieval campaigns from the 12th to the beginning of the 16th centuries, Éditions Picard, 2007, ISBN 9782708407701, p. 61. (French)
  9. Élisabeth Sirot, Noble and strong house - The stately home in medieval campaigns from the 12th to the beginning of the 16th centuries, Editions Picard, 2007, ISBN 9782708407701, p. 32. (French)
  10. the Commandant General of the Army in the Ancien Regime
  11. "Notes and reflections of Marc Nicolas Bouffier on the region of Allevard", 1846, History of Iron in the Allevard region, No. 8, 2008 (French)
  12. "The fifteen glories of Allevard 1842-1856" in History of Iron in the Allevard region No. 9, 2009 (French)
  13. Pierre Léon: The works at Allevard Allier 1963 (French)
  14. Jean-François Belhoste: History of forges of Allevard, Didier-Richard, 1982 (French)
  15. Georges Salamand, Alphonse Daudet at Allevard, éditions Glénat 1977 (French)
  16. Georges Salamand: History of the life of the Spa at Allevard, éditions du Fond-de-France 2007 (French)
  17. "Of all the red tape and absurdities that bristle in the Napoleonic code, that contained in section 213 requiring the obedience of the wife to her husband is certainly the most typical", Chronicle Allevard-les-Bains 1903 (French)
  18. Georges Salamand: Living History of the Spa at Allevard 2007 (French)
  19. List of Mayors of France
  20. National Commission for Decentralised cooperation (French)
  21. Arnold Van Gennep: Le Dauphiné traditionnel Vol. 3, éditions Curandera, 1993 (French)
  22. Pascal Beyls: Estelle Fornier, first and last love of Berlioz, 2005 (French)

External links

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