Church of Our Lady of the Assumption en Savoie

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Origin and history

The church Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Vallorcine was built in 1272 by Valais settlers installed by the prior of Chamonix. Destroyed shortly afterwards, perhaps by an avalanche, it was rebuilt in 1288 under the impulse of Prior Richard de Villette. The seigneurial rights to the parish were then specified, marking its anchor in the local community.

Over the centuries, the church suffered repeated assaults from avalanches, notably in 1594, 1720, and 1756, where its reconstruction was the occasion for heated debates on its location. The inhabitants of Couteray and Métan wanted to move it to the hamlet of the Nant, sheltered from the risks, while those of the avalanche demanded it to remain there. A compromise was found with the construction of a turn, a wall in the form of a bow, to divert snow flows.

In 1843, an avalanche destroyed the bell tower and severely damaged the building, requiring the reinforcement of the bow the following year. The bell tower was rebuilt in 1844. The church, restored in 2006, now houses baptismal fonts in larch (1960) and paintings by Daniel Bricotte, student of Bernard Buffet. Three of its bells, dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, have been listed as Historic Monuments since 1929.

The originality of the church lies in its atypical orientation, dictated by the topographic constraints, and in its turne, symbol of the centuries-old struggle of the Vallorcins against the whims of the mountain. Despite the restorations, its interior, degraded, today calls for a new urgent intervention.

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