Verrayes Parish Church

Introduction

The church is dedicated to St. Martin of Tours who, according to legend, passed through the Aosta Valley net 347 and in 360 A.D. It has been noted that Christian religious buildings dedicated to this saint have often sprung up on pre-existing pagan places of worship, along important roads, near crossroads, watercourses or funerary monuments.

Description

The primitive church of Verrayes, according to tradition, originally stood south of the village of Rapy; it was later rebuilt on the site occupied by the present church. In the first half of the 15th century, it was probably replaced by a new sacred building, with an apse to the east and three naves with large masonry pillars. On the initiative of Canon Pierre-Louis: Vescoz of Verrayes, the 15th-century church was demolished in 1873 and the new building, completed in 1877, was blessed on 11 November of the same year. The church has a Latin cross plan with apses at the end of the side arms and the presbytery and a cúpola on the transept. The bell tower, originally annexed to the church and not affected by the reconstruction work at the end of the 19th century, is now separate and completely out of scale. Belonging to the type of tower with a full shaft without mirrors that it shares with other Aosta Valley bell towers from the Romanesque period, the bell tower underwent major restoration work in 1989 that brought to light decorations around the openings that can be dated to the 13th century. To the west of the church stands the parish house built between 1793 and 1795 by Reverend Jean-Etienne Vacher, parish priest of Verrayes from 1781 to 1809. The former parish house, to the south of the church, was converted into a town hall.