Annecy castle: why the counts of Geneva settled here
The counts of Geneva never ruled Geneva. They fell back on Annecy and built a castle on the spur that controls the crossing, and the town followed.
History & culture of Annecy
Counts of Geneva, Thiou canals and animation cinema.
Annecy is not a stage set: it is a former capital. The Counts of Geneva settled here in the thirteenth century, the town became a Catholic refuge after the Reformation in Geneva, then an industrial centre thanks to the driving power of the Thiou — the shortest river in France, three and a half kilometres, which turned the tanneries, the spinning mills and the paper mills for six hundred years.
That history explains the shape of the old town. The canals are not decorative and have never carried gondolas: they are millraces, dug to capture the energy of the water. The Palais de l’Isle, the most photographed building in the département, was in turn a residence of the counts, a mint and a prison — until 1865. The arcades along the rue Sainte-Claire sheltered trade, not tourists.
This section also covers living culture: the international animation film festival, which has made Annecy the world capital of the form every June since 1960, the château-museum on its rocky spur, and the places where you can still hear a Savoyard that owes nothing to postcards.
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