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Origin and history

The church Saint-Roch de Diemoz, located in the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, is a Catholic religious building erected in the 2nd quarter of the 16th century, beginning in 1533. Originally, it was only a private funeral chapel, a dependency of the castle of Diemoz reserved for the local seigneurial family. Its status changed in the 18th century when it was elevated to the rank of parish church, marking its opening to the village community. Its modest architecture, composed of a central nave flanked by two lowsides added at the end of the 19th century, reflects this gradual transformation to meet the needs of a growing population.

Dedicated to Roch de Montpellier, saint patron saint of pilgrims and corporations, the church is distinguished by atypical elements: a steeple unaxed in the northwest corner and a sacristy also unaxed. These architectural peculiarities may be explained by the constraints associated with its subsequent extension. The building, owned by the commune, is now served by the parish of Saint Hugues de Bonnevaux, attached to the diocese of Grenoble-Vienne. His inscription in the Historical Monuments in 1980 consecrated his heritage value, thus preserving a witness to the religious and seigneurial history of the Dauphiné.

The church's survival was due to a historical compromise: rather than destroying it to build a larger one, the community opted for its enlargement by two lateral naves at the end of the 19th century. This choice illustrates the local attachment to a place full of memory, initially linked to the Dauphinese nobility before becoming a symbol of parish life. The sources also mention its attachment to the historic province of Dauphiné, emphasizing its attachment to a territory marked by a strong cultural and religious identity since the Middle Ages.

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