COLONNE CHARLES FELIX
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The Bonneville column is a symbol of gratitude to Charles Félix, King of Sardinia.
If there is one monument, along with the castle of the Sires of Faucigny, that is emblematic and unmissable, it is this immense column erected on the banks of the Arve. But why did they erect such a monument? And who is this "Rex Karolus Felix" mentioned at the foot of the building? If you are not familiar with Roman numerals, you should first learn that MDCCCXXIIII reads 1824. That year, Charles Félix (1765-1831), King of Sardinia, Duke of Savoy and Prince of Piedmont, who ruled over Savoy (which was not attached to France until 1860, remember), decided to generously subsidize the damming of the Arve, a tumultuous river that kept flooding the valley, causing numerous damages and hundreds of deaths. It was during the visit of Charles Félix, surely one of the last kings to be still in place on a column in France, to Bonneville in 1824 that a temporary column was erected to give thanks to the sovereign. The column we know today, listed as a historical monument in 1942, was built in 1926. Built by the engineer Bard and the company Pélissier of Samoëns, it dominates the Arve and the town from the top of its 44 metres. In addition to the Doric style column, the statue of the king in Carrara marble holding a roll of the diking plan in his hand, as well as a bas-relief (a copy, the original is in the Bonneville town hall) representing the Arve in the form of a chained goddess, should be noted.
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