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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The chapel of Maraîche, dedicated to Saint-André, patron of the fishermen, was built in the 12th century on lands ceded by Humbert de Divonne to the canons of the abbey of Abondance. Unable to repay a loan contracted for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 1180, Humbert left their estates to Saint-Gingolph, Maraîche and Massorgy. The religious founded a strong house and parish church, whose patronage was officially entrusted to them in 1211. In 1218, Isabelle de Bex gave them his seigneurial rights over the inhabitants of Maraîche, and in 1233, Count Thomas I of Savoie confirmed these possessions. In 1250, Pope Innocent IV authorized Abbé Abondance to take control of the church, marking its definitive connection to the abbey.

In the 15th century, the chapel became an annex (daughter) to the church of Neuvecelle. Jurisdictional conflicts persisted, as in 1266 between Abbé Guiffray and Aymon de Blonay: although the abbey retained most seigneurial rights (excluding corporal punishment, reserved for the seigneuries of Saint Paul), it obtained an annual beef tribute as compensation. The medieval building, partially rebuilt between 1620 and 1622 under the impulse of François de Sales, bishop of Geneva, preserves only its foundations, the base of the bell tower and its Romanesque door. This reconstruction gives the chapel its present appearance, with a unique nave of 12 meters and a hemicircular bedside.

The monastic domain, represented on the Sardinian map, includes the abbot's house and that of the religious, both preserved. The chapel, classified as a historic monument in 1921, houses liturgical furniture transferred from the former church of Saint-Nicolas de Neuvecelle in the 1840s, including a altarpiece and a leather chasuble in Cordoba classified in 1993. Its steeple with apparent beams and its fore-porch (ashuta) make it a remarkable example of Savoyard religious architecture, marked by Romanesque and Baroque influences.

Located at a road junction towards Evian-les-Bains and Thollon-les-Mémises, the chapel overlooks Lake Geneva, demonstrating the central role of abbeys in the region's territorial and wine-growing organization. The canons developed a winery at La Platte and Grange Bonnet, illustrating the medieval monastic economy. Today it is a communal property and remains a place of heritage linked to the religious and seigneurial history of Haute-Savoie.

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