Annecy
commune in Haute-Savoie, France
Annecy (US: AN-ə-SEE, ahn-SEE; French: [an(ə)si] ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy, 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Geneva, Switzerland.
Nicknamed the "Pearl of the French Alps" in Raoul Blanchard's monograph describing its location between lake and mountains, the town controls the northern entrance to the lake gorge. Due to a lack of available building land between the lake and the protected Semnoz mountain, its population has remained stable, around 50,000 inhabitants, since 1950. However, the 2017 merger with several ex-communes extended the population of the city to 128,199 inhabitants and that of the urban area to 177,622, placing Annecy seventh in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Switching from the counts of Geneva's dwelling in the 13th century, to the counts of Savoy's in the 14th century, the city became Savoy's capital in 1434 during the Genevois-Nemours prerogative until 1659. Its role increased in 1536, during the Calvinist Reformation in Geneva, while the bishop took refuge in Annecy. Saint Francis de Sales gave Annecy its advanced Catholic citadel role known as Counter-Reformation. The annexation of Savoy merged the city to France in 1860.
Sometimes called "Venice of the Alps", this idyllic and touristic representation comes from the three canals and the Thiou river, which passes through the old city.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q50189. VIAF identifies the subject as 147744785. The Library of Congress control number is n80072433. Authority coordinates are 45.899, 6.129. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950, 2017, 1434 and 1659.
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This entry incorporates text from “Annecy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.