Chapel of La Ville

Introduction

Description

The chapel of La Ville, dedicated to Saint Stephen, was erected and consecrated in 1949 at the behest of the then parish priest Luciano Perron on the site of the old Allein parish church, which had been rebuilt further down the valley in 1839. Inside is an altar, made of carved wooden doors from an altar of the old parish church, which housed the 17th-century wooden statue of St Michael the Archangel, now kept in a protected place, and the wooden statues of St Joseph and St Anne, stolen in 1983. The old parish church was rebuilt several times over the centuries due to the instability of the ground: built in 1307, in a deed of pastoral visitation in 1436 it was built ex novo; and on 28 June 1545, the community entered into a contract with the impresario Vuillencus Lestey to rebuild the building. In the 19th century, the church, the parish house and the bell tower were again in ruins, so that it was decided to move the entire complex to the Pian de Clevel, where it currently stands under the title of St Stephen. The work was completed in 1839 and the building was consecrated by the Bishop of Aosta André Jourdain on 17 November 1841. The church has a single hall or nave with two side chapels. The high altar in polychrome marble dates back to 1886; on either side of the triumphal arch are two late 19th-century wooden altars dedicated to St Joseph and the Virgin Mary. Worthy of note is the wooden crucifix in the triumphal arch, possibly dating from the 14th century.