Last modified: 2012-05-12 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Etrembieres]](../images/f/fr-74-et.gif)
Flag of Étrembières - Image by Ivan Sache, 23 August 2003
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The municipality of Étrembières (1,857 inhabitants in 2009; 5543 ha) is located on the left bank of the river Arve, only 7 km from Geneva (Switzerland). The municipality is made of the village of Étrembières proper and of the hamlet of Pas-de-l'Échelle, built on the first slopes of Mount Salève.
Mount Salève (highest point, le Grand Piton, 1875 m)
stretches over 20 kms between Étrembières and Cruseilles. This so-called 'Genevan mountain' attracted tourists and naturalists as
soon as in the 18th century. Horace-Bénédict de
Saussure, who climbed on the Mont-Blanc in 1786, had his first
rock-climbing experience on the Salève. In the 19th century,
the Salève was visited by Alphonse de Lamartine, John Ruskin,
Richard Wagner and Guiseppe Verdi, who married in
Collonges-sous-Salève in 1859.
In 1854, the Swiss Alpine Club designed the Grande-Gorge hiking trail
between Collonges and the top of the Salève. There are now
more than 50 hiking trails crossing the Salève.
In 1875, a few rock-climbers gathered in a narrow gorge of the
mountain called Varappe. Those people were nicknamed
varappeux. Around 1925, the word varappe was coined to
design rock-climbing and is now commonly used in French.
Since the Salève attracted more and more tourists, a rack
railway was built in 1892. The line was Y-shaped, with two branches
starting from Étrembières and Veyrier, respectively, joining
in the village of Monnetier, and reaching the crest of the mountain
at the place named les Treize-Arbres (1,142 m). The railway was the
first in Europe to use a third rail as the power supply. To produce
the required electricity, a barrage was built on the river Arve near
Arthaz. Electricity was brought to the station of Monnetier-Mairie by
an overhead cable. Each train was made of 12 cars of 36 seats each,
divided into one first class compartment and two second class
compartments. The trip lasted one hour at a speed of 5.4 - 10.8 km
per h, offering a wonderful panoramic view over Geneva, Lake
Léman and the massif of Mont-Blanc.
In 1925, a 33-km road was built
between Étrembières and Cruseilles. In the 1930s, the railway
was considered obsolete and too expensive, and a cableway was built
between Pas-de-l'Échelle and the top of Salève. The cableway
was renovated in 1984, whereas the railway was suppressed after the
Second World War.
Magdalenian remains, a Celtic dolmen (destroyed in 1836), a Roman
milliary column and a Germanic belt buckle are evidence of early
populations in Étrembières. The name of the village might have been derived from ès Tremblières, a place were
aspens (trembles) grew.
The knights of Étrembières, vassals of the Count of
Geneva, lived in the castle of Étrembières, also called the
castle of Rozey, mentioned for the first time in 1206. The castle was
later bequeathed to the Annecy Hospital, which still owns it. The
bridge over the Arve, probably older than the castle, was
mentioned for the first time in 1304; it links
Étrembières to the bigger border town of Annemasse.
In 1536, the Duke of Savoy Charles III
allied with the German emperor Charles V. Upset by the alliance, King of
France François I invaded Savoy. Charles lost all of his
states, which were shared between France,
Valais and Bern.
Étrembières was incorporated to the Bailiwick of Gaillard, allocated to the Republic of Bern.
In 1559, Duke Emmanuel-Philibert was nominally given back his states
by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. Étrembières and the
Bailiwick of Gaillard were formally reincorporated to Savoy in 1567.
In the very beginning of the 18th century, Duke Charles-Emmanuel
I attempted to restore the Roman Catholic religion all over Savoy and to reincorporate Geneva to Savoy. The duke also challenged King of France Henri IV, who invaded Savoy in 1600. The Duke had to "swap" the
lands located west of the river Rhône (Pays de Gex, Bresse,
Valromey and Bugey, which were never reincorporated to Savoy) against
the tiny Marquisate of Saluces. After his defeat, Charles-Emmanuel decided to attack an apparently much less dangerous game, the Republic of Geneva.
During the night of the 11 to 12 December 1602, hundreds of soldiers
gathered in Étrembières, crossed the bridge over the Arve and
put up scales, specifically manufactured for that purpose, against the
walls of Geneva. Warned of the assault, the defenders of the town had designed tools to cut the scales in small pieces. One of the surviving leaders of the expedition could come
back to the castle of Étrembières to relate the fiasco to Charles-Emmanuel. Historians do not agree on the word used
by the duke to qualify the attempt (cagade or
coglionade). The event, known as L'Escalade (The
Scaling) or La Miraculeuse Délivrance (The Miraculous
Deliverance) is celebrated each year in Geneva by a popular
festival.
The disaster of l'Escalade sounded the knell of the
international ambitions of the Duchy of Savoy, which recognized in 1603, the independence of Geneva by the Treaty of Saint-Julien.
Étrembières, incorporated to the French Republic along
with the rest of Savoy in 1792, was allocated to the Department of
Léman, whose capital was Geneva. In 1816, the Préfet of
the department merged the neighbouring municipalities of
Étrembières and Veyrier into a single one.
In 1816, the Treaty of Turin created the Canton
of Geneva, incorporating 24 towns and villages.
Veyrier was (and still is) one of them,
whereas Étrembières was incorporated to Sardinia.
Étrembières was reallocated to France with the rest of Savoy
in 1860.
Source: Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 23 August 2003
The flag of Étrembières, as hoisted on the bridge over the Arve, is vertically divided green-yellow.
The flag is based on the municipal coat of arms of
Étrembières, "Per pale, 1. Vert a tower argent roofed sable, 2. Or a ladder vert, in base sable three fesses wavy or vert and argent."
The dexter part of the arms represents the village of Étrembières by the castle of Étrembières, while their sinister part represents the village of Pas-de-l'Échelle (in French, échelle means "a ladder").
Green and yellow are the traditional colours of Étrembières, share with the Swiss
municipality of Veyrier, which
constituted for a while a single municipality with
Étrembières. Green symbolizes the fields and the meadows,
whereas yellow symbolizes wheat and sun.
Ivan Sache, 23 August 2003
