Heritage: Chambave

The building, situated at the western entrance of the Chambave village, was built in the 17th century by the Baron of Cly, Pietro Filiberto Roncas, using material from Cly castle. The baron moved there, also transferring the jurisdiction of the Cly castle district.

At the beginning of the 12th century, the parish was dependant on the monastery of Fruttuaria, which transferred it in 1182, along with all the other assets held by the abbey in Valle d’Aosta, to the parish of St-Gilles di Verrès. This two-fold conventual dependency lies at the origin of the term “prior” a name by which the parish of Chambave is still called today.
From 1781 the parish of Chambave came under the jurisdiction of the bishop.
The first historical mention of the church of Chambave, perhaps during the era of its construction, dates back to 1100. Nothing remains of the primitive Romanesque building, except for the lower section of the bell tower, which dates back to the mid 12th century.
In 1744, the parishioners of Chambave decided to rebuild their church from its foundations. The works were entrusted to the architect Giovanni Ferro of Alagna and were completed in 1748.
Merit for the definitive appearance of the church is owing to the prior Favre, who extended the nave in 1889, knocking down the portico in front and building two new side chapels. The church then took on the form and dimensions that it still has today.
Among the ancient objects of liturgical use collected in the parochial museum, the following are worth mentioning: the silver-plated copper reliquary in the shape of a case, offered in the 16th century by the commendatory prior J.-L. Vuillet, of the Lords of St-Pierre; four silver leaf crosses (15th - 16th centuries), the photographic reproductions of the illuminated pages of two precious liturgical books, an antiphonary from the 15th century and a gradual from the 16th century, used by the famous prior of the Collegiate of S. Orso, George of Challant. Nowadays these precious codexes are housed, with the other liturgical books from Valle d’Aosta, at the Library of the Bishop’s Seminary of Aosta.

As the crowning glory of the whole, there is a precious oil painting of the Guardian Angel (end of the 17th century). The sacristy on the other hand houses a reliquary bust of Saint Lawrence (19th century), the work of the sculptor Molino.