Bioge bridge

One of the oldest bridges in the Chablais region, it was designed to open up the banks of Lake Geneva by linking them to the upper valleys of Abondance, Morzine, Brevon and Faucigny, as far as Valais.

The little stone bridge was a landmark for the two centuries following its construction in 1736. Commissioned by the House of Savoy (Victor Amédée 2 and Charles Emmanuel 3) and built after a call for tenders by a stonemason from the Faucigny region of Samoëns, François Joseph Duc, this bridge (located in the village of Bioge between the communes of Féternes and La Vernaz, at the crossroads of the 3 Dranses) was part of a commercial link project (lake - Valleys) and was successively part of the royal and then imperial route of the Alps under Napoleon III. Despite many vicissitudes linked to the jealousy of local craftsmen (who lost the tender and destroyed at night what had been built during the day), the bridge was completed in 1736 with a personal motto on one of its parapets. This innovative mountain bridge was later reproduced in the cantons of Vaud and Valais. It is now on the GR5 hiking trail linking Thonon-Evian to Nice, and is part of the Chablais Geopark.