Drône
Origin of the name Drône
The name Drône is unexplained, and no early form of it is known.
Founding of Drône
Drône, at 850 m, is the easternmost village on the Savièse plateau, east of Saint-Germain, with the hamlets of La Sionne and Monteiller. Bronze Age graves show that the site was settled very early. In the Middle Ages Drône formed a Savoyard mayoralty dependent on the castellany of Conthey. It is one of the six villages of Savièse, with Saint-Germain, Chandolin, Granois, Roumaz and Ormône. In the early 1980s the village society of Drône, like that of Ormône, still worked vineyards in common under village statutes.[1][2][3]
History of Drône
2300-1600 BC. Bronze Age graves are dug at Drône, as at Chandolin and Granois.[2][4]
Middle Ages. The village forms a Savoyard mayoralty under the castellany of Conthey.[3]
1540. Savoy gives up the mayoralty of Drône, which then ceases to depend on Conthey.[2][3]
1634. A chapel is mentioned at Drône. It is one of the village chapels built on the plateau in the 17th century, like those of Chandolin, Granois and Ormône.[1][2]
1902. A text records that the town of Sion cedes the Bourzi bisse and pond to the men of Drône and other interested parties. The town keeps the right to run water through it if the Lormoz bisse becomes unusable. Fed by the Sionne, the Bourzi bisse may owe its name to a contribution by the burghers of Sion.[4]
Historic sites in Drône
Chapel of Saint-Christophe. Village chapel from the 17th century, mentioned as early as 1634 and dedicated to Saint Christopher. A photograph taken in 1902 by Max van Berchem, held in the collection of the Federal Archive for Monument Preservation, shows an overall view.[1][2][7]
Étang des Myé. One of the ponds of Savièse, above Drône.[2]
Remains in Drône
Archaeological sites. The ground at Drône has yielded Bronze Age and Iron Age remains, including graves dated between 2300 and 1600 BC.[2][4]
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Savièse » (David Rey, version du 23.02.2011)
- Commune de Savièse, brochure d'accueil des nouveaux habitants
- Norbert Roten, « Savièse, son passé et ses particularités », causerie à la Société d'histoire du Valais romand, 14.09.1980 (via RERO DOC)
- Rose Marie Roten Dumoulin, « La quête de l'eau à Savièse » (via bisses-valais.ch)
- Office fédéral de la statistique (OFS), STATPOP, chiffres provisoires au 31.12.2025, via citypopulation.de
- geo.admin.ch, recherche de lieux (coordonnées de Drône)
- Bibliothèque nationale suisse, HelveticArchives, « Savièse, Drône, Chapelle, vue d'ensemble, 1902 » (EAD-7664)
Other villages near Drône
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