The village

History and Tradition

History & Tradition 

Various names of the village  during the History

. La Chapelle des Frasses
. La Chapelle en Abondance
. Le Mont "Dor" or "Or" to the French revolution of 1792 to 1815
. La Chapelle
. La Chapelle d'Abondance in 1961 following the revision of the name of certain villages

Vaults

The two vaults of the village founded at the XVIIème century point out the passage of François the Dirty ones, bishop and Prince de Genève who, at the time of the pastoral visits to the Vault, stimulated the religious heat of the inhabitants after the danger of the Genevese Calvinism.
Shy persons decorations that they reveal and especially the statuary which decorates them, testify one time or the pertaining to worship relation with the saints and Our Injury had taken a great importance.

"Notre Dame de La Compassion", in the center of the village would have, according to the legend, summer built on the site of another place of worship destroyed at the time of a overflow of the torrent of Chevenne.
Its label of origin: Notre Dame de Pitié, St Felix, St Andre and all the Saints... had not been randomly selected!

"La Chapelle Saint-Jacques", with the hamlet of "La Ville du Nant", accomodates a statue of a pope, St Felix in remembering perhaps Felix V, anti-pope in Basle, better known under the name of Amédée VIII, Duc of Savoy which, being dislocated from this tiara cumbersome, came to piously finish its days with "Le Château de Ripaille" on the edges of Léman.

The church

Francis WEY, writer of the XIXème century, sended through High Savoy in order to describe in France this new department just attached to its territory, is surprised by the appearance of the bell-tower:
"One thus reaches La Chapelle whose odd bell-tower ends in two superimposed lanterns, separated by copper balls..."

The House of the Sisters

The Sisters of Charity, order rested by Jeanne Antide THOURET in Doubs, were called by the parish of La Chapelle to come to teach the girls.
Built in 1842, Ground-floor accomodated a pharmacy herb trade the classrooms and the wash-house.
On the 1st floor was the housing of the sisters.

La Chapelle Country of Art and History!

Since 2003, the "Vallée d'Abondance" profits from the Pays label of art and history decreed by the Ministry for the Culture to the communes which engage in animation of their inheritance.
Exhibitions, guided tours, paths sets of themes, workshops for children... all the means are good to discover the richness of our history and our daily newspaper!
Landscapes with the mountain pastures, abbey with the vaults and oratories, work of wood to the winter sports, in fact the the facets of our framework of life are presented at the inhabitants as with the visitors!

The traditional house

Francis WEY, our journalist traveller of 1865, while entering to the hamlet of "Les Passengués", was impressed by  "the largest most original farms and which one can imagine. Sometimes they are capped high pyramidal chimneys in boards, with the hearth of which the vacherins are manufactured, famous cheeses of the canton of Abondance. Habitat and architecture are not the fact of the chance. They correspond to particular and original answers brought to the problems arising from the natural surrounding. In winter, it is necessary to answer two essential requirements: to have a sufficiently vast space to shelter the animals and the men, and the reserves of food necessary to the ones and the others. In this "age" of the hay, volume of engrangement will depend the number of animals wintered in the stables.


The Vallée d'Abondance is likely to have its own traditional habitat : beautiful farms in wood that you will not find elsewhere... the visitor is first of all struck by the vast proportions of these constructions. Then its glance is attracted by the 2 or 3 galleries magnificiently carved and decorated which run the frontage.
These huge farms can include 2 symmetrical residences. The stone base shelters the cellars.
The dwelling is in frontage (on the level of the first balcony), separated from the stable by a long corridor.
The balcony higher on the floor of the hayloft is used for drying of harvests. With the back of the farm, a slope allows a direct access to the hayloft.

The stone furnace

Typical mode of heating of the house, the furnace of stone potstone is found in the large dwellings located on the high part of the valley. The stones will have been cut in the career of Saix and often even, the furnace will have been imported from the "Vallée de Bagnes" in Valais from where its evocative name of "Bagnard".

top of page