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Origin and history

The Pointue Chapel is a 19th-century Catholic chapel built on the island of La Réunion, in the Villèle district of Saint Paul. It once belonged to the Desbassayns house, a colonial plantation run by the Panon Desbassayns family in Richemont. Its architecture and history are closely linked to the evangelization of slaves, a strategy used to prevent revolts in the colonies.

The building of the chapel was initiated in 1841 by Ombline Desbassayns, owner of the estate of Villèle, in order to create a place of worship dedicated to the Virgin and Saint Ombeline, patron saint of the sponsor. The chapel was blessed in 1843 by Bishop Poncelet. In 1866, the tomb of Ombline Desbassayns was transferred from the marine cemetery of Saint Paul, twenty years after his death. The chapel is decorated with 24 spans of broken arched arches and houses a marble altar with a bas-relief representing a cross deposition, carved by Bousquet, a Nantes artist.

In 1932, the chapel was destroyed by a cyclone, then rebuilt and blessed again in 1933 by Bishop of Beaumont. A local legend tells us that lightning would have fallen on the grave of Ombline Desbassayns because of his cruelty to his slaves. Between 2001 and 2003, the chapel underwent restoration to correct the imperfections of the 1932 reconstruction.

The Pointue Chapel is listed as a historical monument on August 12, 1970, becoming one of the two oldest historical monuments of La Réunion, with the prefecture hotel of Saint-Denis. Today, it is visited as part of a tour offered by the nearby Villèle Historical Museum.

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