Notre Dame de Lorette chapel

Chapelle des Arses à Charmey, (Charles Morel, 1917), Musée gruérien, Bulle

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This chapel was founded in the hamlet of Les Arses by the brothers Georges and François Remy after they were acquitted of witchcraft charges in 1652. The Notre-Dame de Lorette chapel, with its bell dated 1653, was part of a vast Swiss movement devoted to the veneration of the Santa Casa di Loreto, a high point on the pilgrimage route to Rome.

The 1973 restoration work renewed the rendering without drilling, which may have destroyed a hidden painted decoration, like the one that can still be admired on the walls of the Praz chapel at the entrance to the village on the Gruyères side.

The altarpiece compensates for its small size, due to the narrowness of the apse, with great elegance. The main painting features the patron saints of the two founders, whose initials appear between two columns.

Saints George and Francis flank a black Madonna that replaced the one at Loreto in the 18th century, in response to the faithful's infatuation with the black Madonna in the Chapel of the Graces at Einsiedeln.

On the walls, two paintings from the early 19th century depict Saint Aloys (Saint Louis de Gonzague in France) and the symbols of the Sacred Heart and the Virgin Mary.

Chapelle des Arses, Charmey, (1905), Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire de Fribourg, Fonds Collection de cartes postales, CAPO

In collaboration with the municipality of Val-de-Charmey