The Church of Saint Michael and the Chapel of Saint Sebastian, Lanslevillard - Haute Maurienne - the 25th of August 2912

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The fact that this whole area is skiing oriented has eventually relegated its historical richness to a second plan, which may be a bit of a pity as both the village Church and the twelve chapels within the area, each of which dedicated  to a theme or a period of time are really worth visiting.

References in the internet are scarce and the beautifully made little booklet on both the Church of Saint Michael and the chapel of Saint Sebastian, with illustrative pictures of the richness that each of these house inside may not be enough to convince people of its importance.

Pierre Huart, the author of the pictures for this booklet happened to be our host and no symbol, detail and historic and religious issues were left unturned. I personally believe that his explanation further contributed towards a thorough understanding of the importance of what we visited.

 

According to historical accounts the Church of Saint Michael dates back to the early 12th century and so does the little stone statue of the Virgin, which can be seen on its exterior.

Its interior  is worth being looked at because of its golden sculpted columns (by the tow Bessans brothers - Jean Baptiste and Bennoit) and two Italian influenced paintings (Titian and Tintoreto)  dating back to the 18th century, among other Sacred artefacts.

The Chapel of Saint Sebastian  houses fifty three frescoes depicting the life of Christ and Saint Sebastian, said to have been painted at the Piémont atelier. They are very impressive not only because of the artistic expression displayed but also because the original colours have been well preserved, which is surprising enough after all these years.

We didn't leave the area without having seen several groups of rocks spread in the valleys, whose origin and symbols have not yet been quite deciphered, despite the clear impact they have on whoever walks by.

The last Haute Maurienne picture was taken to the little chapel of Saint John Baptist, with its main entrance frescoes.

 

By the time we drove back to Nattages it was getting dark and it had just started to rain fairly heavily ... but we were happy ... it had been a "culturally rich" day spent in the company of interesting people and in an almost perfect "setting" ...