The Tignes dam: an important construction of the 1950s

Built in the town of Tignes, the dam creates an artificial lake of 235 million m3 covering an area of 270 ha.

> The origins of the Tignes dam

This development is the result of a will of the State taken in the name of the common good and the general interest. The project was proposed as early as 1929 before being delayed due to the crisis of the 1930s and then to the occupation. The idea was not abandoned, however: after the passage of the law on the nationalization of electricity (April 1946) and in the context of the reconstruction of the country after the war, the work of the Tignes dam was declared useful. public and emergency on May 10, 1946.

> The start of the works

Carried out between the summer of 1947 and November 1952, financed by the State and by aid allocated under the Marshall Plan, the work required the use of powerful construction equipment and enormous human resources. 5,600 workers were thus identified during the summer of 1949. The working conditions, the hostility of the natural environment and the desire to complete the work quickly cost the lives of 52 of them (not counting the deaths linked to the diseases contracted afterwards such as silicosis of miners).

The work was finally inaugurated in July 1953 in the presence of Vincent Auriol, President of the Republic. 

> Significant consequences for the populations

This development has resulted in the dispersal of the inhabitants of the former capital as well as of the hamlets located nearby. The divisions of the Tignarde community, the difficult relations with EDF, the legal vicissitudes did not make it possible to envisage the future of this population in good conditions: at the time of the evacuation, out of the 87 families of the he former village, 15 are relocated in the town, around 20 in the canton, 6 in Val d'Isère, 26 in the two Savoyard departments and 11 in the south of France.

This evacuation carried out under dramatic conditions and the dispersion that followed, are still present in the minds of the Tignards and were commemorated in 2002 by the construction of the Memorial Statue by the sculptor Livio Benedetti which celebrates both the memory of the old Tignes and looking to the future.

> A new village of Tignes

The destruction of the old village necessitated the emergence and construction of new gathering points for the inhabitants.

Initially, the Boisses became the new center of the town. There is the Saint Jacques church, an identical reconstruction of the church of the old village, the cemetery containing the bodies moved from the old village and the communal buildings, in particular the town hall, which will remain in place until 'when it was transferred in 1977. Regarding the Boisses church, it should be noted that six bells were cast to recall the old Tignes and the destroyed hamlets: the capital, Villarstrassiaz, Ronnaz, La Chaudanne, la Milleguaz, Lilaz and the Grand Pré.

> 25 years later: Tignes le Lac

Subsequently and 25 years after the evacuation of the old village, the municipal services set up within the Tourist Unit in Tignes-le-Lac, which since 1975 has become the new capital of the municipality, thus testifying to the importance assumed by the village located at 2,100 m and thereby the development of the winter sports resort ...

More details on http://www.mairie-tignes.fr/76-l-histoire-de-tignes.htm

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