Mountain land restoration - Savoie

The map provides access to the geolocated pictures of this collection, with a navigation by municipality. For each municipality, you will find all the photographs taken in that particular area.

Access to the digitized documents

It is a selection of photographs taken in the department presented here. The Archives Nationales hold "merely" 5,042 photographs from a much larger collection held in the Savoie departmental archives.

The collection is organised by forest conservation area around a river, a stream or main torrent, defined by the forest services, and then by series (equivalent to a municipality, a forest or a secondary branch of the main torrent) in alphabetical order within an area.
The title of the photograph generally contains a full description of the view.

This collection valuable for its continuity and the extreme regularity of the takes, ranges from 1885 to 1963, the most representative periods being 1883-1914 and 1930-1955. It constitutes an essential source of the history of mountain areas over a century, revealing an ethnographic approach (scenes of daily life, costumes, housing, village festivals, traditional cheese dairies), working conditions of forestry personnel and workers employed on building sites).

On the same subject

  • Fewer sheep, more dairies
    Dairy school at Marignac, 1899, Haute-Garonne
    Mountainous Area

    Fewer sheep, more dairies

    At the end of the 19th century, the policy of restoring land in the mountains imposes the reforestation of traditional rangelands, which entails the expropriation of peasants and prohibits them from grazing their sheep and goats. Faced with this unfavourable situation for mountain dwellers, some foresters encourage them to develop cattle rearing, which enables them to produce butter and cheese, processed products that provide a better income.

  • Reforestation at altitude: from species selection to “flying nurseries”
    photographie de Billecard, 1899 : La Bâtie Neuve, pépinière volante de pin cembro, périmètre de Durance-Luye.
    Mountainous Area

    Reforestation at altitude: from species selection to “flying nurseries”

    Starting from 1860, but especially after 1882, reforesting entire areas of the Alps or Pyrenees becomes a national policy, implemented by the mountain land restoration services (RTM). The goal is to reforest in order to stabilize the land and silence the torrents. Reforestation involves selecting species suited to the altitudes and conditions of the mountains. It also requires organizing production in "flying nurseries" or in valleys for the most suitable tree species.