Chapel of Sainte-Marie d'en Haut

Historic site and monument

© Office de tourisme de Grenoble-Alpes Métropole, Laurent Ravier

30 rue Maurice Gignoux
38031 Grenoble

The chapel of Sainte-Marie d'en Haut has rich and prestigious decorations, testimony of respect and beauty for the divine service.

The walls and vaults are entirely covered with murals painted for the beatification and canonisation of Saint François de Sales in 1662 and 1666.
Executed by the painter Toussaint Largeot in a shade of grey and white enhanced with gold, according to a symbolic programme conceived by the Jesuit Father Ménestrier, the paintings represent numerous medallions surrounded by allegorical figures illustrating the virtues advocated by Saint François de Sales.
The medallions show scenes from the life of Christ, the Old Testament and the life of the Virgin Mary.
An original trompe l'oeil painting showing a drapery and a book placed on a balustrade adorns the triumphal arch at the entrance to the choir.
The chapel has preserved its magnificent gilded wooden altarpiece, sculpted by Nicolas Chapuis in 1662, a gift from François de Bonne de Créqui, third Duke of Lesdiguières and Governor of the Dauphiné.
For the beatification celebrations of Saint Joan of Chantal in 1747, the marble altar surmounted by a baldachin was made by François Tanzi.
The niches in the altarpiece house the statues (not the original ones) of Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Augustine.
The choir still has the grille that separated the sanctuary from the nuns' choir, located perpendicular to the chapel.
The Visitandines never saw the altarpiece and the altar except from the side.
This meant that they could not be seen, nor could they see the lay people attending the services.