Saint-Jean-de-Sixt (Municipality, Haute-Savoie, France)
Last modified: 2012-04-13 by ivan sache
Keywords: haute-savoie | saint-jean-de-sixt | triangle (red) |
Flag of Saint-Jean-de-Sixt - Image by Ivan Sache & Olivier Touzeau, 20 October 2003
Presentation of Saint-Jean-de-Sixt
Flag of Saint-Jean-de-Sixt
Haute-Savoie (Department, France)
The municipality of Saint-Jean-de-Sixt (1,353 inhabitants in 2009; 1,221 ha) is the smallest of the villages in the Aravis massif. The village is located at the foot of Mount Danay (1,730 m asl).
Sixt is named for the stone-cutters, locally called scyts, scits or sits (from Latin scindere, to split), who were already renowned in the Middle Ages for the production of millstones.
The Villaret chapel was built in 1600 on the site of the birth house of Blessed Pierre Favre (1506-1546), one of the seven founders of the Society of Jesus. Favre travelled through Europe for 10 years, walking and riding more than 12,000 kms, to propagate his faith.
The Pont des Étroits (Narrow bridge), over the river Borne, was until 1922 the limit of the Tax-Free Zone, carefully avoided by the local smugglers.
Ivan Sache, 20 October 2003
The flag of Saint-Jean-de-Sixt is white with the municipal logo.