CHAMBÉRY, ARCIDIOCESI of. — In the department of Savoie (France). It was erected at the request of the king of Sardinia, Vittorio Amedeo III, by Pius VI in 1779, from part of the territory that had until then depended on the diocese of Grenoble. Having become vacant following the death of its bishop, Conseil, the see was suppressed. The Concordat of 1801 restored it with the title of C. and Geneva. In 1817 it was detached from the metropolitan see of Lyon in order to be elevated to an archbishopric, with Aosta as its suffragan. At that time it comprised a total of 627 parishes. Subsequently, however, those belonging to the canton of Geneva were annexed to the diocese of Lausanne (1819), which also assumed the title of Geneva (1821). Shortly after the erection of the bishopric of Annecy (1822) and of the dioceses of S. Giovanni di Moriana and Tarantasia (1825), the archdiocese of C. was reduced to its present dimensions.
Today it comprises part of the department of Savoie, 8 parishes in the arrondissement of Albertville, and 10 in the department of Haute-Savoie, with 174 parishes divided among 21 archpriestships over an area of 2,400 sq km. It has 130,000 Catholics, 282 diocesan priests, and 91 religious priests; 10 male religious communities with 112 religious, and 76 female communities with 580 religious women. Free secondary education is provided in 11 schools for boys with 1,484 pupils and 18 schools for girls with 1,790 pupils. Metropolitan of the province of Savoie, the archbishop of C. has as his suffragans the bishops of Tarantasia, S. Giovanni di Moriana, and Annecy. The see has been occupied by 2 bishops and 11 archbishops, among them Cardinals Billiet and Dubillard. Capital of the department of Savoie, C. is situated at the confluence of the Albane and the Leysse. The city has 28,000 inhabitants. It does not date back to great antiquity. The Roman city occupied the present-day suburb of Lémence, whence the name Lamineorum, by which it is sometimes designated. More commonly, however, the names Camberium, Camberiacum, Civaro, or Camerinum are used, derived from the names of localities that have now disappeared. In 1230 it was ceded to Count Tommaso I of Savoie, who had the famous castle built there as the residence of the princes of his family. Burned in 1748 and 1798, it was restored at the beginning of the nineteenth century. C. remained the capital of Savoie until the sixteenth century, when it yielded its place to Torino.
A beautiful Gothic Cathedral adorns the city. Within the diocesan territory are situated the abbeys of la Grâce-Dieu, of N.-D. de Tamié of the Cistercians, founded in 1128 and belonging to the Trappists from 1677 and again from 1861, and the Benedictine abbey of Hautecombe.
C. is also the birthplace of two writers: the brothers Xavier (d. 1852) and Joseph de Maistre (d. 1821), no less esteemed for their literary talent than for the sincerity of their faith.