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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Georges in Saint-Jeoire-en-Faucigny, Haute-Savoie, is a Catholic building dedicated to Saint Georges, whose name of the village (Jeoire) probably derives (Georgius). A first rectangular church, built in the Middle Ages, underwent modifications over the centuries. Its bell tower, perhaps dating from 1173 (dated engraved), was demolished in 1739 because of its precarious state. The communal council decided in 1740 to rebuild a new bell tower, completed in 1759.

The French occupation of the Savoy (1792–15) left the church in a state of advanced degradation: desecrated altar, damaged woodwork and roof, to the point that the diocese of Annecy planned to ban worship there. The altar was rebuilt before 1837, but the expansion projects, considered unaesthetic, were abandoned. In 1855, the old church was destroyed to give way to a new neo-Gothic Lombard building, built between 1856 and 1858 on land offered by the family of La Fléchère, near the hill Sur Nave.

The medieval bell tower, preserved despite the reconstructions, again threatened to ruin in 1878: its summit was replaced by a cemented platform with niches. The church underwent a final restoration in 1989. Today, its bell tower houses four bells melted by the Fonderie Paccard d'Annecy-le-Vieux, testifying to its complex religious and architectural heritage, mixing medieval traces and modern transformations.

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