This chapel is located in the hamlet of Villars-Saint-Marcellin, on the Montot hill. It was built in 1856-1857 by the people of Villars to thank the Virgin Mary for her protection during the cholera epidemic of 1855. With the epidemic at the village gates, the parish priest, M. Carbillet, promised the Virgin her gratitude if she interceded with the divine on behalf of the villagers to protect them from the disease. After a subscription, the chapel was built and blessed by Mr Bavoillot, vicar general to Bishop Guerrin. The building was given the name of Notre Dame de La Salette following the resounding apparitions of the Virgin Mary to two young shepherds in the Grenoble area in 1846.
This elongated church has a single nave followed by a choir comprising a straight bay and a three-sided apse. It is covered by a ribbed vault with radiating quarters. The sacristy backs onto the apse. The western facade, bays and buttresses are made of sandstone ashlar, while the rest of the building is rendered. The sacristy is covered in tortoiseshell tiles and the chapel in flat tiles, but the lower sections have been re-roofed in mechanical tiles.
Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette à Villars-Saint-Marcellin
