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Origin and history

The necropolis of Morette is a place of memory situated on horseback in the communes of La Balme-de-Thuy and Thônes, Haute-Savoie. This site commemorates mainly the struggles of the Resistance during the Second World War, especially those on the plateau des Glières. It houses 105 tombs, 88 of which are those of guerrillas, initially marked by wooden crosses replaced by bronze crosses between 1960 and 1963, offered by the Fonderie Paccard.

Inaugurated in April 1944, the necropolis became a national military cemetery in 1949 and took its present name in 1984. General de Gaulle paid tribute to the combatants on 5 November 1944. The site also includes a departmental museum of the Resistance, housed in a 1794 chalet, and a memorial dedicated to the 1,200 high-savoy deportees, erected by the U.N.A.D.I.F. (Association of Deportees, Internees and Families).

The cemetery is managed by the ONACVG and the Ministry of the Army. It has been listed as a historical monument since 2015 and bears the 20th century Heritage label. The mayor of Thônes played a key role in 1944 in refusing the burial of the resistors in a mass grave, allowing their dignified burial at the place called Morette.

The museum, born in 1964 on the initiative of the Glières survivors, traces the history of the Resistance in Haute-Savoie. The Deportation Memorial honours camp victims, mainly resistance fighters. The site, located on departmental road 909, is a high place of regional collective memory.

The strategic location of the site, at the foot of the plateau des Glières and near Annecy, makes it a symbol of the fight against the German occupation. Architectural elements, such as the bronze crosses and the chalet-museum, reinforce its historical and educational character.

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