Tourist Guide

Hautes-Alpes department (05)

Prefecture: Gap
Subprefecture: Briancon
Population : 132 000 hab.
Website: www.hautes-alpes.net

Hautes-Alpes (High Alps) is the highest department in France in average. The Durance river is the backbone of its territory, on which live a population of 118,000. Isolated until the arrival of the train, the department has learnt through history to live on its own resources, which helped in hard times. It is a mainly farming area – forests, pastures, fruit, milk – but tourism has been developing quickly thanks to the ski resorts of Serre-Chevalier Vars, les Orres or Montgenevre and in the summer to the many campsites around the Serre-Poncon artificial lake.

KM 26.5: SAVINES-LE-LAC (Pop: 1 ,120)

In seven centuries, the village changed locations three times. In 1282, when Rodolphe de La Font de Savines ruled, the village was on the right bank of the Durance river, where the ruins of the La Font de Savine castle can still be seen. Floods forced the locals to build another village. But in 1961, the new village was in turn demolished when the Serre-Poncon dam took over and flooded the valley. The third village was named Savines-le-Lac.
The village hosted the start of a Tour de France stage in 1974.

Place to see

Serre-Poncon lake
Tragic floods of the Durance in 1843 and 1856 led to the idea of dam. However it was only in 1948 that a Russian engineer, Ivan Wilhem, put forward a viable project. Works on the site started in 1955 under the helm of architects Jean de Mailly and Jean Prouve and valley was finally flooded in 1961. Some 1,500 were displaced while their villages - Savines, Ubaye, Rousset – disappeared. The new Savines-le-Lac was inaugurated in 1962. Serre-Poncon is the second largest artificial lake in Europe.

KM 32 : CROTS (Pop: 760 )

On the banks of the Serre-Poncon lake, Crots combines the charm of a typical village with several tourist activities linked to the lake or to its Nordic skiing site in La Draye. There is a lot to see in town – the 12th century Boscodon abbey, the 13th century Picomtal castle and the St Laurent church.

Places to see

Picomtal castle
It was built by the lords of Embrun, ruling along with the archbishops of their city. Kicked out by the archbishop and the bourgeois in 1080, they built a wooden keep in Crots, replaced in the 13th century by a stone tower called Boniface Tower today. In the 14th century, a square castle with four towers was erected. In 1507, Martin de la Vilette, who inherited the castle from the Embrun, doubled the surface of the castle and rebuilt two towers.

Notre-Dame de Boscodon abbey
Founded in 1142, the Notre-Dame de Boscodon abbey was built by hermit monks of the Chalais order tahnks to funds given by Guillaume of Montmirail. The monks lived from the forest and from sheep breeding. In the 18th century, the abbey passed under the rule of the archbishop of Embrun and some of its building were demolished. During the French Revolution, the abbey and its lands were sold and hamlet was built around the convent, which was turned into a stable. In the 20th century, the villagers left for the city and the owner sold the premises to Dominican monks, who restored th abbey and settled in.

KM 34,5 : EMBRUN (Pop: 6,700)

Overlooking the Durance from its rock, Embrun meant Mound by the water in Celtic. It was the capital of the Cottian Alps during the Roman Empire and was fortified by Vauban in the 17th century. The old fortress still appears in places. Nowadays, Embrun hides several traces of her past in its little streets. The chapel of the Cordeliers convent dates from 1447 and keeps beautiful 15th century frescos rediscovered in the 1970s. The chapel now hosts the Tourist Office. Several fountains, corbelled houses, the house of the governors or the House of the Chanonges are still remarkable. The Notre-Dame du Real cathedral, built between 1170 and 1220 remains the most important religious monument in the French Alps. At the top of the town, the Brown Tower is the 13th century keep protecting the archbishop of Embrun.
Embrun today thrives on tourism, at the crossroads of the main skiing resorts of the Hautes-Alpes. The Serre-Poncon lake is also a focal point.
Embrun hosted the start of two Tour de France stages in 1974 and 2008.

Place to see

Notre-Dame du Real cathedral
The Notre-Dame du Real cathedral, built between 1170 and 1220 remains the most important religious monument in the French Alps. Its architecture is largely inspired by the Lombard tradition. The Real porch, flanked by two lions, was covered for two centuries by a fresco representing the Adoration of the mages The cathedral’s treasure, on display in the St Francis chapel, is a priceless collection of ritual furniture, paintings and clothes from the 15th to the 19th century.

KM 49,5 : SAINT-CLÉMENT-SUR-DURANCE (Pop: 270)

St Clement is a passage way between Embrun and Guillestre by the river Durance, long seen as one of the three plagues of Provence with the mistral winds and the Aix-en-Provence parliament. A boating site, St Clement remains protected by its 13th century Lombard tower. The village is known by geologists for the cliff overlooking the village, a perfect example of the Alpine orogeny.

KM 53 : GUILLESTRE (Pop: 2,200)

The city of Guillestre lies on a plateau at the altitude of 1,000 metres overlooking the gorges of the Guil shortly before its junction with the Durance. In a mountainous cirque, it is sheltered by its mountains and has one of the lowest rain levels in France. Guillestre is the main entry point towards the Queryas valley and a passage between Embrun and Briancon.

Place to see

Place forte of Mont-Dauphin
At the confluence of Durance and Guil rivers, overlooking the impressive canyon of the latter flowing down from Queyras valley, Mont-Dauphin is one of the many places fortified by Vauban in the second half of the 17th century. In 2008, the place forte of Mont-Dauphin, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of the "Fortifications of Vauban" group.

KM 68 : L’ARGENTIERE LA BESSÉE (Pop: 2 300)

While L’Argentiere has an agricultural past, silver mines gave it its name and its main source of wealth from the Roman times. The exploitation of the mines intensified in the Middle-Ages and went on until the beginning of the 20th century. The old industrial and mining facilities have been restored and are now open to visits. A museum was created to honour this industrial heritage. The silver mines obviously gave their name to the city, called Castrum Argenterie in 1202.
L'Argentière-la-Bessée was also marked by the growth and decline of its aluminium industry. The closure of the Pechiney plant in 1985 bore a hard blow to the local economy now turning to tourism.

Place to see

St Jean chapel
Formerly linked to a house of the Knights Hopsitaller, the chapel was built on a rocky mound by the old mountain path known as “via per alpem”. The chapel played a major part in the history of the region.

KM 75 : SAINT-MARTIN-DE-QUEYRIÈRES (Pop: 950 )

SSt Martin de Queyrieres is a succession of picturesque hamlets scattered with churches, chapels and oratories as the village was a halt on the St James Way route starting from Turin.

KM 87,5 : BRIANÇON (Pop: 11 700)

At 1,326 metres, Briancon is the highest city of more than 10,000 inhabitants in the European Union. The sub-prefecture of the Hautes Alpes is a mountain town and a ski resort, part of the Serre-Chevallier ski domain. Briancon was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2008 for its fortified complex. Its strategic position close to the Italian border always made it a garrison town.The presence of numerous forts built over more than three centuries confirm this military vocation and the whole is a unique example of mountain military architecture. Partly fortified by Vauban, the town keeps remarkable fortifications and countless monuments.
The absence of humidity and the healthy climate made Briancon famous for the treatment of respiratory diseases and especially asthma.
Fighting raged for months during the Second Worl War and Briancon was finally liberated in September 1944.
Briancon hosted 33 stages of the Tour from 1922 and 2007 and crowned all the biggest names in the sport: Thys, Pélissier, Bartali, Bobet, Coppi, Bahamontes, Gimondi or Merckx.

Place to see

Vauban forts
Briancon was always a military town and a compulsory crossing point for armies attacking the other side of the Italian border. In the late 17th century, Louis XIV sent Vauban on the spot with the mission of fortifying the south-eastern part of his kingdom. Vauban arrived in October, 1692 an his orders quickly spread far beyond the town itself. To control Briancon, it was also necessary to be in command of the neighbouring summits. Vauban ordered the building of the Salettes redoubt and a camp on the Montagne des tetes. Back in Briancon in 1700, Vauban also built a bridge over the Durance to link the various forts. The main fortifications were completed between 1720 and 1734 – the Fort des Tetes was the central and biggest defensive spot, the Fort du Randouillet watched over the Cervieres valley, the Communication Y was a gallery linking those two forts while the Fort Dauphin, an outpost at the foot of the Infernet pass, blocked the road towards Italy.

KM 95,5 : MONTGENÈVRE (Pop: 490)

The oldest French ski resort, Montgeneve is known worldwide for its mountain pass, used to cross the Alps almost forever and notably by Caesar’s troop in 58 BC. Given its position, the village has always been protected by fortifications and the most impressive is arguably the Fort du Chaberton, also named the Fort in the clouds. At 3,315 metres high, with an Italian and a French side, it is the highest fort in Europe. It was built between 1900 and 1914 on what was then Italian soil.
In 1907 was organised in Montgenevre the first ski meeting which made the sport popular in France.
The resort was the finish of a Tour stage in 1976, won by Joop Zoetemelk.

Place to see

Napoleon Obelisk
Standing at the end of the village on the spot that used to be the Franco-Italian border until 1947, the oblesik marks the end of the construction of the road to Montgenevre, completed in 1804.

KM 96,5 : COL DE MONTEGENEVRE (1 850 m)

An historical mountain pass between France and Italy, the Montgenevre pass was used nine times by the riders of the Tour de France between 1949 and 1999. Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi annexed it in the first two occasions but Richard Virenque remains the King of Montgenevre which he reached in the lead three times.

KM 98,5 : CLAVIÈRES (Pop: 200)

After using the Montgenevre pass in 58 BC, Julius Caesar decided to build a better road for his legions: the via Cottia per Alpem. It started in Turin and went through Susa (Segusium), Oulx (Villa Martis), Cesana Torinese (Gadaone o Gaesao) and the frightful gorges of Claviere. The road remained a simple path during the Middle-Ages until Napoleon built a paved road in 1804. Claviere settled on this roads and is now a popular ski resort which was part of the 2006 Olympics in Turin. The Franco-Ityaian border is at the end of the village.

PROVINCE OF TURIN

Close to the border, the Province of Turin was always rocked by the conflicts with nearby France. Turin, as a result, was once the capital of Savoie and even briefly, of Italy. Turin is the focus of the province. Founded by Augustus, the fourth biggest Italian city is also one of its main industrial centres and the home of Fiat, the country’s emblematic carmaker. At the foot of the Alps, in a zone of exchange between Italy, France’s Rhone-Alpes and Switzeland, Turin takes full adntage of the situation. Yet the Province of Turin is also an alpine region, proud of its mountain agriculture and the beauty of its landscapes. The province, with 2.3 million inhabitants, held the 2006 Winter Olympics and is a popular tourist area.

KM 105 : CESANA TORINESE (Pop: 1,050)

Cesana Torinese lies on the remains of a Roman road going from the Po valley to France and it even though it lost its commercial importance in the Middle-Ages, it retained a crucial military role. From the 14th to the 17th century, Cesana was indirectly affected by the Wars of Religion because of the presence of the Waldensian church in the Pragela valleys). The town’s economy relies today on tourism and winter sports. Cesana has a ski resorts belonging to the Via Lattea domain. It was one of the 2006 Olympic sites, hosting luge and bobsleigh.

KM 112 : SESTRIÈRES (Pop: 900)

Built by the Agnelli family, owners of Fiat, in 1935, it became one of the most famous ski resorts in the country, home of the ski events at the 2006 Olympics, host of the alpine skiing world championships in 1996 and of several World Cup races. Its architecture remains marked by the Mussolinian style, especially its hotels in the shape of towers. Sestriere is also renowned for other sports like athletics – Sergei Bubka beat his last pole vault world record in the resort in 1994 at 6.14 metres. The Tour de France stopped in town four times between 1952 and 1999 with wins by Coppi, Chiappucci, Riis and Armstrong.

KM 125 : PRAGELATO (Pop: 780 hab.)

In French Pragela (frozen field). Pragelato was first mentioned in the late 11t century as belonging to the Ste Mary of Pignerol Abbey. In the 11th and 12th century, the area was ruled by the Dauphins of Viennois, like most of the Val Chisone. In 1343, Pragela was joined to one of the four escartons created by the Dauphins in their mountain possessions, the Oulx Escarton. In the 14th century, the Waldensian church settled in the valley to escape from French repression. In the 15th century, the Val Chisone, mainly protestant, became the Pragela escarton. In 1713, the treaty of Utrecht handed the area to the House of Savoie. In 1747, a battle took place in nearby Assietta between French and Sardinian troops. The 19th and 20th centuries saw a massive emigration towards France. Pragelato held the Nordic skiing and Nordic combined events in the 2006 Olympics.

KM 138 : FENESTRELLE (Pop: 570)

Fenestrelle Fortress
The Great Wall of the Alps spreads along the crest of Mount Orsiera over three kilometres. Built in the 18th century, the Fenestrelle fortress includes three forts, three redoubts and two batteries on a slope of more than 600 metres in declivity. Its construction was ordererd by Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia and it was conceived by architect Ignazio Bertola to protect the Piedmont against a French invasion. A stair with 4,000 steps climbs up the fortress along the three kilometres of walls. It was so impressive it was never attacked. It was later used as a jail.