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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Vif, located in Isère, finds its origins in the 11th century with the foundation of a Benedictine priory in 1035 by monks dependent on Saint-Laurent de Grenoble. This priory, endowed with many dependent properties and chapels, becomes a major religious center of the Gress Valley. The church, both abbatial and parish, is attached to the priory in 1130 and houses up to seven religious. In the 13th century, a cloister was added, as well as convent buildings, while the nave was rebuilt in a Dauphinian Gothic style.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries marked a period of transition for the priory. In 1340 Bishop John II of Chissé criticized the state of neglect of the place, but in 1390 his successor Aimon II noticed significant improvements, including the realization of murals in the collaterals. The wars of Religion ravaged the church in 1562 and especially in 1573, when the Huguenotian troops of the Duke of Lesdiguères set fire to the priory and cut down the vaults. The building, left abandoned, was restored from 1630, with the reconstruction of the vaults and the resettlement of the Catholic cult.

In the 17th century, the church underwent several major transformations: the primitive bell tower, damaged by flames, collapsed in 1685 and was reconstructed identically between 1686 and 1709. In 1673 Bishop Étienne Le Camus ordered an internal whitening, while a new cemetery was inaugurated in 1780 to replace the old, which had become small. The French Revolution ended the priory in 1790, sold as national property after 760 years of existence. Only the church remains, becoming communal property in 1906.

The 19th and 20th centuries were marked by restoration campaigns and archaeological discoveries. In 1857, parish priest Joseph Ollier undertook repairs after a lightning strike, lowering the roof of the nave and rebuilding the bell tower over the porch. The painter Alexandre Debelle decorated the apse and choir in 1865, while excavations in 1965 revealed 11th century capitals and a medieval cemetery around the church. In 2007, murals from the 14th to 15th centuries, covered with badigeons, were rediscovered, leading to the classification of the church as a Historic Monument in 2011.

The architecture of the church combines Romanesque and Gothic styles. The 11th century bedside, with its three apses, contrasts with the 13th century nave, characteristic of Dauphinian brick architecture. The Tower of Porche, rebuilt in 1857, and the bell tower of the seventeenth century, decorated with gargoyles, dominate the building. Inside, the collateral houses altars dedicated to Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary, as well as a monument to the deaths of the First World War. The murals, divided into celestial and terrestrial scenes, offer a rare testimony of medieval art in the region.

Saint John the Baptist Church is also linked to historical personalities, such as François de Bocsozel, a prior buried in the choir, or the Finaly children, hidden in Vif during the Second World War and baptized in the church in 1948. Its history reflects the religious and political upheavals of the region, from the wars of Religion to the Revolution, to the anticlerical tensions of the twentieth century.

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