SAVOIE, a department of France, formed in 186o of the old provinces of Haute Savoie, Savoie, the Tarentaise and the Maurienne, which constituted the southern portion of the duchy of Savoy. It is bounded north by the department of Haute Savoie, east and south-east by Italy, south-west by the department of the Hautes Alpes, and west by those of the Isere and the Ain. Pop. (1930 235,544; area 2,388 sq.m. It is mainly made up of the basin of the Isere. Probably the Isere formerly communicated with the Rhone past Chambery and the Lac du Bourget. The sources of the Isere and of the Arc are separated by the ridge of the Col du Mont Iseran (9,085 ft.). The loftiest points are the Grande Casse (12,668 ft.), the culminating summit of the Vanoise group, the Mont Pourri (12,428 ft.), the Pointe de Char bonel (12,336 ft.), the Aiguille de la Grande Sassiere (12,323 ft.), the Dent Parrachee (12,179 ft.), the Levanna ft.) and the Aiguilles d'Arves (11,529 ft.). A small portion of the department (including both shores of the Lac du Bourget) is in the part of the duchy of Savoy neutralised in 1815. The chief products are
cattle and dairy-products and wine. There are general manufac tures and tobacco is grown. It is divided into 3 arrondissements (Chambery, the chief town, Albertville and St. Jean de Mau rienne), 29 cantons and 33o communes. It forms the dioceses of Chambery (an archbishopric), Moutiers-Tarentaise, St. Jean de Maurienne and Annecy, it is in the XIVth military region (Lyons), and is in the academie (educational division) of Cham bery, where is its court of appeal. There are mineral springs at Aix-les-Bains (q.v.), while other sulphur springs rise at Marlioz and at Challes, those of Salins being saline, and those of Brides (the best known after Aix) alkaline. For the history of the dis trict see SAVOY, HOUSE OF.
See J. J. Vernier, Dict. top. du dep. de la Savoie (Chambery 1897).