The archeological museum is located in
the hamlet of Viuz, just outside the town of Faverges (Haute Savoie) halfway between Annecy
and Albertville. The modern hamlet of Viuz, whose name derives from
the Latin name Vicus, is built within the perimeter of the Roman town
of Casuaria, which lies under parts of both modern-day Viuz and Faverges.
To uncover the Gallo-Roman past of the community, several digs have
been conducted in the past few years, including the continuing project
at Le Thovey. Some of the numerous Gallo-Roman artifacts excavated
since the early 1980s have been placed on display in the museum. It
is operated by Les Amis de Viuz-Faverges (AVF), a non-profit group that conducts archeological
digs in the Faverges area and organizes cultural and folk activities.
Volunteers provide thousands of hours of service yearly to preserve
the history of Faverges and of the Savoie region.
The gallo-roman (3rd c.
CE) cauldron found at Le Thovey
is on display at the Musée de Viuz
The old Roman Turin-Geneva
road ran past the present-day museum, at the foot of the Roche de
Viuz mountain. When French highway planners decided to build a highway
bypass over the path of the old Roman road in the late 1980s, a rapid
salvage dig was conducted before the area was to be paved over. A
row of small devotional shrines and temples was found just 100 meters
behind the museum; numerous devotional objects (ex-votos),
statuettes and coins were found before the temples were reburied to
become the foundation of the modern highway. These artifacts are currently
being studied, and some are on display in the museum.
Temple walls seen here,
over 2 meters high, now lie buried along the new "rocade"
(high-speed bypass) just east of Viuz. In this temple and nearby
shrines were found numerous ex-votos, including a terra-cotta
head of an unidentified deity and a small bronze dog (or wolf or
fox) whose purpose is not yet understood
The
Museum's collection was displayed in the Palazzo Guasco of Alessandria (Italy) in December 1996 and January
1997, as the focus of an exhibition whose title was "Casuaria:
A Gallo-Roman village in Savoie." The collection is once again
on display in Faverges.
MUSÉE ARCHÉOLOGIQUE
DE VIUZ Open Monday to Friday 14h30-18h30
Saturday and Sunday 16h30-18h30
(From July 1 through August 31)
Admission: adult 14F, child 7F
Out of season please call (0) 450.324.599
late afternoons to set up an appointment
TUESDAY AFTERNOON GUIDED TOURS
Visit of the Museum,
Romanesque Viuz church,
and of the Gallo-Roman villa of Le Thovey Meet at 14h30 in front of the Museum
Admission: adult 20F, child 15F
Faverges et son canton (in
French) Société
des Amis de Viuz-Faverges
Visit Faverges and its surrounding county throught the pages of
this 32-page booklet. It is lavishly illustrated with both color
and black & white photographs. It is divided in sections dealing
specifically with the towns and villages of Faverges, Viuz, Chevaline,
Doussard, Marlens, Giez, Lathuille, Montmin, Cons Sainte-Colombe,
Saint Férréol, Seythenex and the Roman digs at le
Thovey.
NEW!
Au Pays de Faverges (in French) Editions
Alan Sutton
Joué-les-Tours
Les Amis de Viuz-
Faverges, under the direction of Michel Duret, have culled through
attics and basements, leafed through family archives, dug up long-forgotten
photographs to assemble for us a fascinating illustrated visit into
the past of the people of Faverges and the surrounding county. The
reader will be amused, moved or puzzled by these photographs which
bear witness to the social, economic and cultural changes that have
transformed the daily lives of the local people in the first half
of the XXth Century.
over 200 photographs,
captioned and explained
- on sale at the Musée de Viuz -
The
Museum's collection was displayed in the Palazzo Guasco of 
Faverges et son canton (in
French)
Current Digs in Faverges
Les
Amis de Viuz-Faverges
H.
Savoie server museum page
Balme
de Thuy Rock Shelter
Corrèze
Archeology links