Churches and shrines: Saint-Vincent

Built in the heart of the village, on land where an old, public press once stood.

Completed in 1954, this family chapel dedicated to the Holy Innocents was built by the couple Thérèse and Vincent Gorris as a votive offering during World War II.

The facade was frescoed by the Valdostane painter Italo Mus. An appeal in French on the side to the north invites passers-by to reflect.
The secluded interior is completely covered in cobblestones taken from the Dora. There is large painting in the middle, a work by Italo Mus, depicting the Virgin Mary wrapped in a red cloak while crushing a snake. There are two altars worth noting (the original one has a sculpture of the Sacred Heart and an altar built according to liturgical reform directives, facing followers) and two stained glass windows depicting the patron saints of the Gorris couple, Vincenzo and Teresa.

Located at the heart of the Saint-Vincent hillside.

The construction of the sanctuary came from an idea around 1720 by the priest Pierre Bréan, who was vice parish priest in the village from 1705 to 1713 and greatly devoted to the Virgin Mary. In an agreement stipulated in 1725, the inhabitants of Grun and Valmignana committed to providing the land and the materials necessary, while Reverend Bréan committed to paying the works and furnishing the chapel. The temple was completed in 1727; participants at the inauguration festivities included the abbot Jean-Baptiste Perret, who in 1770 discovered the thermal water source.
The sanctuary quickly became a place of pilgrimage and votive offerings continued to increase, which were brought by followers who asked for gracious healing or conversion.

Extended in 1864, this small church has a nave, a choir, a sacristy and a small choir loft. There are plenty of votive offerings on the walls, beside the Carrying of the Cross; the brick altar, lying between four columns, once hosted a large painting of Mary, however it was stolen in 1992. Today, a shelf hosts a statue of the Virgin Mary in walnut which was a gift from a devotee.
Outside, a retracted area forms a porch. Worth noting, the fresco by Mus depicting the Virgin Mary welcoming pilgrims with open arms.

There were once numerous processions from the village of Saint-Vincent to Grun sanctuary; we particularly recall one at the end of May and the “rain” procession appealing for rain and for it to stop.

Situated in the town of Moron, on the Saint-Vincent hillside.

Its current structure, with a large circular apse, dates back to the XV century, when important changes were made to a probable, pre-existing Romanesque building. For some time it conserved certain parish church prerogatives (festive functions and cemetery), even though it was never a parish church.

The apse vault has a beautiful series of ribbed stone. Recent restoration removed the modern structures and decor, in an attempt to restore the church to its original appearance.
In the past, on Easter Monday, the so-called “vineyard procession” took place, which in almost six hours passed through all the villages and chapels on the Saint-Vincent hillside.

Built by the Benedictines in the XI century in Romanesque style, the church was subject to multiple architectures one over the another, but also some significant modern restoration (1968 - 1972).

It is located on the structures of a Roman building, brought to light during recent restoration and which dates back to 300-400 A.D. It could have been a huge Patrician villa or a public building; it has a dual heating system using air blown under the floor, which was used to heat the “calidarium”.
The archaeological site under the church is currently closed.

Inside, there is a huge, clear contrast between the sobriety of the environment and the wealth of decorative paintings in the absidal area. The nave is divided into a succession of alternating columns in square, circular and polygonal shapes.

The church was originally without vaults (they date from 1696) and the current, large windows. The roof was held up by visible beams or the coffered ceiling and light used to pass discretely through the high, narrow, vaulted windows that are double recessed. The groin vaulted arch that overhangs the altar is fake, although rather old. The triumphant arch, probably in the XIII century, restricted the absidal area due to its framework and considerably reduced the area of the underneath crypt, a mystical with three small naves, each with three arches whose small, stone columns support capitals dating from the VIII century.

The oldest frescoes in the church are those in the north absidioles, by Iacopo Jacquerio (or his school), dated 1416. Also in the XV century Giacomino of Ivrea painted the triumphant arch with a cycle of doctors of the church, saints and prophets. Decorations were added over these paintings, which were dull and plastered, by Filippo da Varallo towards the end of the XVI century and are still visible today (partly, thanks to restorations in the Seventies), once covering the entire presbytery basin.

Christ on the Cross in the presbytery is a bronze work of art by Luciano Minguzzi.

With the new museum layout, the visitor is guided through a path to discover the symbolic places of local religiosity, such as the parish church and the numerous village chapels, from which the art objects on display come from, witnesses of faith and local popular devotion.
You can admire wooden sculptures and other works of art ranging from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, such as the splendid goldsmiths.

This chapel is located a few km from Col de Joux, starting from Saint Vincent.

Building work for the Amay Shrine of the Partisans begun in 1951 and ended in 1962; it was commissioned by a leader partisan belonging to one of the oldest families in Saint Vincent, Edoardo Page (1899-1977). His idea was to reunite a few of the people who had fought with him, even after their deaths, in the close-by cemetery. A big stone slab is located on the façade, displaying the writing “Ai caduti per la libertà 9-9-1943 / 25-4-1945”.

The single-nave building hosts a large fresco, carried out by Lucio Bulgarelli, displaying human figures placed alongside a flaming, lit globe; a rainbow symbolising peace detaches from it and bears the word “Libertà”, with the date “1961”. The cone-shaped, stone bell tower is noteworthy.

Built by the inhabitants of Écrivin, Moulin and other districts on the bank of the Grand-Valey to appeal for protection in an area subject to river flooding.

Dedicated by its founders to St. Michael and after the extension of 1747, dedicated to Our Lady of the Snow, the chapel in the past called the “Sanctuary” was of huge importance to residents and various bequests linked to it (in particular, donations to celebrate masses). Yet, the temple was not a rich one. In fact, according to a document from 1866, the church treasury requested the funds necessary for immediate restoration work by calling upon the heirs to the ancient founders in 1747 and reminded them of the signed commitment.

Worth noting, the large fresco that covers the facade with a scene from the Last Judgement. There is a characteristic, little bell-tower on the projecting roof.