Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de la Vie

Saint-Martin-de-Belleville (Les Belleville)

Set apart from the villages, between Saint-Martin-de-Belleville and Saint-Marcel, the sanctuary of Notre-Dame de la Vie is one of the great pilgrimage sites of Savoy. Built between 1633 and 1680 to the plans of the architect Nicolas Deschamps, it unfolds a Greek-cross plan with three radiating chapels, crowned by a dome painted in 1679 with scenes from the Old Testament and topped by a lantern — a manifesto of Savoyard Baroque art, nourished by Piedmontese artists, in a Savoy that remained a Catholic bastion facing Reformed Geneva. The interior preserves three altarpieces, of which the one from 1636 is held to be the oldest Baroque altarpiece in the Tarentaise; behind a sliding door, the high altar conceals the venerated statue of the Virgin, reputed to work miracles. The very name of the sanctuary tells its legend: Notre-Dame "de la Vie" (Our Lady of Life) was a sanctuaire à répit, a shrine of respite where parents brought babies stillborn or dead before baptism, in the hope that they might miraculously return to life just long enough to be baptised and so escape limbo. Every 15 August, the feast of the Assumption gathers the valley here in procession under the motto "give thanks for life". The building has been protected as a historic monument since 1949.

Getting there : Between the main village of Saint-Martin-de-Belleville and the hamlet of Saint-Marcel, beside the Belleville valley road (D117); open daily from 9am to 5.30pm all year round, free admission, interior partly visible through a grille, guided tours by the Fondation Facim in season.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound