Churches and shrines: Gressoney-Saint-Jean

The Chapel of Gresmatten
In the chapel of Greschmattò, dedicated to Maria Addolorata, and dating back to 1852, a Holy Mass is still celebrated today on the Good Friday, during which the Stabat Mater is sung in German.
This chapel is distinguished from the many other chapels in Gressoney for its yellow ocher color and for the name of the Saint frescoed on the facade with two small cherubs.
The chapel cannot be visited, but it is on the road that goes up towards the Savoy Castle and therefore it certainly deserves a visit, at least to see it from the outside.

The chapel of Loo
The chapel of Loo, dedicated to Saint Lawrence, is located in a high mountain pasture at 2080 meters above sea level, reachable in two and a half hours via walking trail number 12, which begins in Loomatten.
The white facade is dated 1682. Every year, on August 10th, for the feast of Saint Lawrence, a Holy Mass is celebrated, a deeply-rooted tradition strongly felt by the local community.

The chapel of Saint Joseph
The chapel of Saint Joseph, also known as of the Hermitage, is located a few minutes’ walk from the town of Gressoney-Saint-Jean. Dedicated to St. Joseph, like most of the Gressonard chapels, it dates back to 1600, and precisely to 1633; it cannot be visited inside.

The chapel of Trinò
This chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Grace and Our Lady of Sorrows, was built in 1720.
On the facade of the chapel there is a wooden cross and a Latin sentence with the year of its construction and that of its restoration. The chapel is located a few meters from the regional road, in the locality of Trinò. It is not open and cannot be visited.

The chapel of Eckò
Perhaps one of the most beautiful chapels in Gressoney, the chapel of Eckò, dedicated to St. John of Nepomuk and Our Lady of Sorrows, was built in 1657. It has wonderful frescoes of 1727 on the facade.
It can be reached in 20 minutes on foot from the hamlet of Noversch, or along path no. 15 which connects Gressoney-Saint-Jean to Gressoney-La-Trinité.
The chapel is privately owned and cannot be visited.

The parish of Gressoney-Saint-Jean was established in 1660 by Pope Alexander VI, who divided it from that of Issime, on which it depended up to that time. The church was built in 1515 on the foundations of an older chapel, as appears from the gothic inscription on the facade: “Hoc opus fecerunt magistri Anthon Goyeti de Issima et Cristanus filius eius, anno Domini MDXV”. During the first decades of the 1700’s, the building was elevated and extended with the addition of two asymmetrical side naves (the one on the left is shorter due to the presence of the bell tower from the sixteenth century).

Interesting elements:

• the 13th century wooden crucifix
• the German baroque goldsmith works of the small museum of sacred art.
• the bell tower: it is previous to the sixteenth century construction of the church and was raised in the 1700’s. The sides end with triangular tympanums that hold up a copper spire, from 1903, in pyramidical shape, surmounted by a cross;
• the Stations of the Cross: sheltered by an arcade in the churchyard, they date back to 1626, but the frescoes are of a later period, work of the Gressonard painter Joseph Anton Christopher Curta (1754-1794), also the author of the Crucifix of the parish church of Verrès and the Madonna of the Rosary located in Arvier. The beautiful stone cross in the middle dates from 1735;
• on the façade there is a bronze bust of Queen Margherita of Savoy, so loved by the Gressonards, solemnly inaugurated on September 9th 1928, in the presence of Prince Umberto of Savoy.