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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The chapel of Concise, originally a parish church, was first mentioned in 1250 in a bubble of Pope Innocent IV. This document attests to its existence as early as the thirteenth century, marking its early anchoring in the religious landscape of the region. At that time, the building served as a place of worship for the local community, in a context where parishes structured the social and spiritual life of Chablais, then under Savoyard influence.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the church was enlarged with the addition of a span and the construction of a chapel dedicated to Saint Michael. These changes reflect a period of demographic development or local prosperity, typical of the 14th–15th century where religious buildings were often extended to accommodate more faithful. However, in 1536, during the Bernese occupation, the building was severely damaged, to the point that the cult was interrupted until 1598, the date of the restoration of Catholicism in the region.

The chapel owes its survival and transformation to Saint Francis de Sales, who ordered its repair and expansion in 1621 as part of the Catholic reconquest of Chablais. On this occasion, the original term of Saint John the Baptist was replaced in 1630 by that of Saint Sebastian, probably in response to an epidemic of plague, a common practice to invoke divine protection. Once again a simple chapel in the 19th century, it loses its parish status but retains its heritage role, as evidenced by its inscription in the Historical Monuments in 2015

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