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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The chapel Saint-Érige, located in the hamlet of Auron on the commune of Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée (Alpes-Maritimes), is a Catholic building dating back to the 13th century or the first half of the 14th century. Its simple architecture, marked by a carpented nave and two uneven apses vaulted in cul-de-four, was enriched in the middle of the 15th century by an exceptional painted decor. The latter, executed in 1451 as evidence of an inscription, partially covers older frescoes still visible in places. The iconographic program, probably inspired by Piedmont, combines hagiographic scenes (life of Saint Érige, Saint Denis, Marie-Madeleine) with representations of Christ and the Tetramorph, testifying to a local sponsor concerned with religious prestige.

The bell tower with a stone arrow, later added, and the old presbytery of the mid-16th century complete the whole. Classified as a Historical Monument on 27 March 2000, the chapel illustrates medieval religious art in the Southern Alps, where northern Italian influences and Provencal traditions intersect. The paintings, made in wet weather, adorn the apses, the eastern wall of the nave and part of the north wall, offering a rare example of sacred narration preserved in situ in this region. The artist's anonymity, despite the quality of the work, underlines the often collective and local character of these works.

Historical sources, such as the works of Luc Thévenon or Christiane Lorgues-Lapouge, underline the importance of this site in the painted heritage of the Alpes-Maritimes. The chapel, a communal property, remains a memory of medieval devotional practices, while asking questions about transalpine artistic exchanges at the end of the Middle Ages. Its state of conservation and its high mountain location (at about 1,600 m above sea level) also bear witness to the architectural adaptations to the climatic constraints of the Alpine valleys.

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