Carte géologique de la Savoie et des régions limitrophes, published in 1928 by Léon Moret, distills the drama of the French Alps into a lucid, scholarly portrait. Moret, among the foremost interpreters of Alpine structure, organizes Savoie’s complex bedrock into a legible symphony of color and line, capturing the intricate folding, faulting, and stratigraphic juxtapositions that define the region. The map anchors itself in the Savoie heartland—Chambéry, Albertville, and Aiguebelle—while reaching across frontiers to include Geneva, Annecy, and Turin for geographic and tectonic context. It belongs to a pivotal moment in early twentieth‑century geology, when ambitious regional syntheses knit together field observations and emerging structural concepts across national borders, revealing how the Alps were assembled and how their landscapes evolved.

Moret’s design is both exacting and beautifully articulate. A finely graded chromatic palette distinguishes stratigraphic units from deep time through recent deposits, while a crisp legend translates color into age, lithology, and geological setting at a glance. Structural symbols—thickened lines for thrusts, dashed traces for faults, sweeping axes for anticlines and synclines—give the relief of the bedrock an almost cinematic depth. Though resolutely geological, the sheet interleaves essential topographic cues to keep valleys, ridges, and basins intelligible. Discreet insets zoom into areas of heightened complexity within Savoie, where crowded contacts and nested folds demand larger‑scale treatment and reward the attentive reader.

Geographically, the sheet follows the natural corridors that define Savoyard life and terrain. The Isère valley of the Tarentaise and the Arc of the Maurienne carve long structural windows, where bedrock relationships unfold with clarity. To the west, the folded Subalpine chains sweep around the Combe de Savoie, while the Bauges and Chartreuse massifs rise in rhythmically banded limestones and marls. Lac du Bourget anchors the foreland, a cool blue counterpart to the warm tones of Mesozoic strata. Eastward, high passes such as Mont Cenis and the Little St. Bernard intimate ties to Italy; northward, the frontier glances toward Geneva and the Swiss foreland. Glacial sculpture is implicit everywhere—broad U‑shaped valleys, perched basins, and morainic spreads—set against the stern architecture of the orogen.

Scientifically, the map dramatizes the Alps’ tectonic choreography. Contrasting colors cue shifts from older crystalline foundations to younger sedimentary covers, while structural traces delineate the stacking and transport that lofted marine limestones above valleys and carried deep units across great distances. Moret renders the Subalpine fold‑and‑thrust belt with exemplary clarity, tracking how competent limestone packages buckle into sweeping anticlines, while ductile marls accommodate strain. He charts transitions up‑section into flysch and younger foreland deposits, and down‑section into older platforms and basement highs. The result is a didactic tableau of Alpine building—erosion, deposition, burial, metamorphism, and uplift—in which each valley and ridge reads as a line in a grand geological score.

Léon Moret brought to this work the authority of a field geologist and the grace of a master cartographer. Trained in the great French tradition of structural geology, he synthesized innumerable traverses into a coherent regional vision that converses fluently with Swiss and Italian mappings of the period. His 1928 Savoie sheet pairs scholarly ambition with a pedagogical instinct: it clarifies without simplification, invites close study, and withstands it. For historians of science, it captures early twentieth‑century Alpine understanding at high tide; for collectors, it offers a rare union of aesthetic poise and intellectual depth. Above all, it preserves the Alps as Moret saw them—layered, dynamic, and irresistibly legible.

Cities and towns on this map

• Chambéry (Savoie; modern-day population ~61,000)
• Albertville (Savoie; modern-day population ~20,000)
• Aiguebelle (Savoie; modern-day population ~1,200)
• Geneva, Switzerland (modern-day population ~200,000)
• Turin, Italy (modern-day population ~870,000)
• Annecy, France (modern-day population ~130,000)

Notable Features & Landmarks

• Color Coded Legend: Provides a clear breakdown of geological units depicted on the map.
• Stratigraphic Units: Different colors represent various geological strata, indicating the complexity of alpine geology.
• Structural Features: Notable alpine structures, such as folds and faults, are shown.
• Topographical Details: While primarily geological, the map includes some topographical elements that correspond to the regions.
• Inserts: Smaller maps or insets for detailed views of specific areas within Savoie.

Historical and design context

• Mapmaker: Léon Moret, a prominent French geologist and cartographer, noted for his expertise in Alpine geology.
• Publication Year: 1928
• Design/Style: The map features a highly detailed and colorful representation of geological formations with a clear legend indicating various geological materials and units.
• Historical Significance: It represents an early 20th-century understanding of the geology of the French Alps, important for historical geological studies and cartography.

Please double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.

This is a very large map that must be ordered at a large size, so that you can easily make out all of the details.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 90in (230cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 18x24in (45x60cm) version of this map.

The fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.

If you’re looking for something slightly different, check out my collection of the best old maps to see if something else catches your eye.

Please contact me to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.

This would make a wonderful birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, work leaving, anniversary or housewarming gift for someone from the areas covered by this map.

This map is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or you can buy it framed. The frame is a nice, simple black frame that suits most aesthetics. Please get in touch if you'd like a different frame colour or material. My frames are glazed with super-clear museum-grade acrylic (perspex/acrylite), which is significantly less reflective than glass, safer, and will always arrive in perfect condition.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.