La Roche-sur-Foron

La Roche-sur-Foron stands on a rocky height above the lower Arve valley. Its castle, fortified houses and walls protected a town of fairs and markets, whose liberties were recorded in 1335. In the early seventeenth century Catholic renewal brought new religious communities here in response to Protestant influence from Geneva. Capuchins built a convent below the castle, Jesuits taught, and Bernardine nuns established themselves in the town.