Church of Saint John the Baptist en Savoie

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Origin and history

The church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Chevenoz, in Haute-Savoie, finds its first mentions written in 1411, during a pastoral visit of the bishop of Geneva, Jean V de Bertrand. At that time, it was located on the hamlet of the Plan and was already dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The building, considered unsanitary and small, threatened to fall into ruin, reflecting the material challenges of small medieval rural parishes.

In 1888 the decision was taken to build a new church on a separate site, in response to the structural problems of the old building. The works, led by architect Eugène Denarie (d'Annecy) and entrepreneur Jean Visconti, began in 1893. The present church was completed in 1894 and consecrated three years later, in 1897, marking a modernization of the local religious heritage.

The site is historically linked to a pilgrimage attested from the fourteenth century, celebrated on June 24 for the nativity of Saint John the Baptist. Although rumours suggest the presence of the saint's relics, their authenticity remains uncertain, as the ethnologist Arnold van Gennep points out. The interior restorations, carried out in 1931 by Paul Eletto and then in 1997, testify to the continuous maintenance of this place of worship and devotion.

The church thus embodies both spiritual continuity — with its centuries-old pilgrimage — and architectural evolution, from a precarious medieval building to a neo-Gothic or neo-Roman building (style not specified in the sources), typical of the ecclesiastical reconstructions of the late 19th century in Savoy.

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