Tignes - Local History

Since the 13th century the ancient village of Tignes was located on the banks of the river Isere, at the height of 1,650m above seas level and was principally a farming community. It was a typical Savoyard villages, isolated in the far end of the valley, until the building of the Col de l'Iseran road crossing in 1936, linking the valleys of the Tarentaise and Maurienne. Tignes was divided into Tignes Les Brevieres and Tignes itself.

The traditional life of Tignes soon changed after the second world war. The reconstruction of the country required a lot of electricity, and the French national electricity company was urged to exploit natural resources, especially hydro-electricity in the mountains and construct a barrage at Tignes. It was estimated that damming the river at Tignes could at the time provide in excess of 10% of the country's electricity requirement.

The building of a big barrage and the formation of the resulting artificial lake Chevril, effectively doomed the village of Tignes, together with most of its hamlets to be definitively flooded. The inhabitants of Tignes attempted to preserve their ancestral heritage by all means, legal and otherwise. However on 10th March 1952 the schools were closed and on 26 March 1952, the prefect of the department of Savoie ordered to open the floodgates and the lake filled up and the ancient village of Tignes was lost forever.

The barrage of Tignes is 180m high, the artificial lake of Chervil has a maximum volume of 230,000,000 cubic meters. Every 10 years the flood gates are opened and lake Chevril is emptied, and the dam is thoroughly cleaned. During this period the old buildings of Tignes reappear as if by magic and memories of the original inhabitants are re-kindled. The new village of Tignes was built 6km from the ancient one near the lake of Tignes. The village church was built on the model of the former one.

In 1957, 5 years after the inauguration of the barrage, the inhabitants of Tignes decided to set up a ski resort. The resort is located at a height of 2,100m and consists of Tignes-le-Lac, le Lavachet and Val-Claret. In 1973, the glacier of la Grande-Motte (3,430m) was made available for summer ski. With neighbouring ski resort of Val d'Isere, Tignes has set up a big ski domain called Espace Killy (after jean-Claude Killy, the legendary winner of the 1968 Olympic Games).