Chambéry is the capital of the department of Savoie, France.
It has been the historical capital of the Savoy region since the 13th century,
when Amadeus V of Savoy made it his seat of power.
read full wikipedia reference about Chambery, France
CHAMBÉRY
, 55km north of Grenoble,
lies just south of the Lac du Bourget in a valley separating
the Chartreuse Massif from the Bauges mountains, historically
an important strategic position commanding the entrance to the
big Alpine valleys leading to the passes into Italy. The present
town grew up around the château built by Count Thomas of
Savoie in 1232, when Chambéry became capital of the ancient
province, and flourished particularly in the fourteenth century.
Although superseded as capital by Turin in 1563, it remained
an important commercial and cultural centre and the emotional
focus of all French Savoyards: "the winter residence of
almost all the nobility of Savoy", Arthur Young reported
in 1789, before its mid-nineteenth-century incorporation into
France.
Today, however, Chambéry is a provincial town offering
a couple of fairly good sights but otherwise little excitement.
Halfway down the broad, leafy boulevard
de la Colonne is the splendidly extravagant Fontaine des Éléphants
, an elaborate homage to himself by the Comte de Boigne, a native
son who made a fortune in the French East India Company in the
eighteenth century. Just south of this on square de Lannoy-de-Bissy
is the Musée Savoisien (daily except Tues 10am-noon &
2-6pm), which records the lost rural life of the Savoyard mountain
communities. On the first floor are some very lovely paintings
by Savoyard primitives and painted wood statues from various
churches in the region; up above are tools, carts, hay-sledges,
old photos, and some very fine furniture from a house in Bessans,
including a fascinating kitchen range made of wood and lined
with lauzes (slabs of schist).
Next to the museum, in the enclosed little
place Métropole, the cathedral has a handsome, though
much restored, Flamboyant facade. The inside is painted in elaborate
nineteenth-century trompe l'il , imitating the twisting shapes
and whorls of the high Gothic style. The cathedral's treasury
(May-Aug daily 3-6pm; free) is worth a look for a very early
ivory diptych and a thirteenth-century pyx (a case for holding
the Eucharist).
A passage leads from the square to rue
de la Croix-d'Or , with numerous restaurants and the Italianate
Théâtre Charles Dullin , named after the avant-garde
director who was born in the region. To the right, there's the
long, rectangular place St-Léger , with a fountain and
more cafés, where street musicians and players perform
on summer evenings. Rousseau and Mme de Warens lived here in
1735, and also had a country cottage, Les Charmettes, just 2km
south of the town on the rustic chemin des Charmettes. It's now
the Musée Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Wed-Sun: July & Aug
10am-noon & 2-6pm; rest of year 10am-noon & 2-4.30pm),
containing personal possessions of the famous philosopher.
Towards the northern end of the square,
the town's smartest street, rue de Boigne , to the right, leads
back to the Fontaine des Éléphants. But if you
continue past this intersection, on the left, a narrow medieval
lane, rue Basse-du-Château, brings you out beneath the
elegant apse of the Ste-Chapelle , the castle chapel, whose lancet
windows and star vaulting are in the same late Gothic style as
the cathedral. It was built to house the Holy Shroud, that much-venerated
and today highly controversial piece of linen brought back from
the Crusades and reputed to bear the image of the dead Christ.
The dukes took the original with them to Turin but a replica
remains on display here. The chapel contains the biggest carillon
in Europe, a 70-bell monster which you can hear in action on
Saturdays at 10.30am and 6pm. To get into the chapel head left
to the entrance of the Château des Ducs de Savoie (daily
guided tours: May-Sept 2.30, 3.30 & 4.30pm), which provides
the only access. A massive and imposing structure, it was home
to the dukes of Savoie until they transferred to Turin, and is
now occupied by the préfecture . A short walk north from
the door of the castle along promenade Veyrat is the Musée
des Beaux Arts (Mon & Wed-Sat 10am-noon & 2-6pm), a provincial
museum with a collection of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century
Italian works, including some good Renaissance paintings, as
well as a number of less interesting nineteenth-century works.
For those interested in medieval art, the church of St-Pierre-de-Lemenc
, off boulevard de Lemenc (a twenty-minute walk north of the
centre), is a must, featuring early Christian baptistery, Carolingian
crypt and fourteenth-century sculpture (Sat 5-6pm, Sun 9.30-10.30am).
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