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Origin and history

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption of Peillonnex came into being in the early 11th century, when Count Robert offered land to a community living near a pre-existing church, attested to before 988. This donation, validated by the Bishop of Geneva Giraud (1012-1019) and later by his successor Hugues and Pope Benedict VIII, marks the foundation of the Augustinian priory. In 1156, the priory was attached to the Abbey of Abundance by Count Amédée I of Geneva. In the 14th century, he tried unsuccessfully to emancipate, before going under the regime of the beginning of the 15th century. The Bernese occupation of 1589 led to a fire on the priory, which survived until its abolition in 1793, after attempts to dissolve in 1781.

The present church, built between the late 12th and early 13th centuries in a late Romanesque style called Cistercian, is distinguished by its broken nave in cradle and its painted stucco altarpiece. It underwent several restorations, one in 1887, and its bell tower was rebuilt in 1858. The building, which was listed as a historic monument in 1971, houses a silver statue of the Virgin of the Assumption (17th century), an object of an annual pilgrimage on 15 August, notably to plead for rain during droughts (1701, 1861, 1870) or against rabies.

The priory, a spiritual and economic centre, plays a key role in local life until the Revolution. The canons, expelled in 1793, left behind a heritage marked by devout processes and practices, revived in the 19th century by the bishop of Annecy, Ernest Isoard. Although the pilgrimage declines after the 1980s, the church remains a testimony of Savoyard religious history, linked to Augustines and Marian devotion.

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