The Montette chapel

Little information is available on the chapel. The earliest date is marked on the stoup (1781). Does it correspond to the year the church was built or the year the stoup was made? The building was restored in 1898 by a family from Roux. As for the saint it houses, Saint Antoine de Padou, he was a Franciscan monk of the early 13th century. He was famous for his knowledge of theology and his oratory skills. Nowadays, he is prayed to in order to find lost objects.

From the ruins of the Montette, we can see the Pic de la Lauze to the right and the Pic du Fond de Peynin far back, to the left. In the foreground, the Montette valley comes out on the Bouchet valley which reaches Abriès

For 3 centuries, families had lived here. They cultivated the land, producing bread and cheese. They traded with the Italian valleys through the Col Saint Martin. Like many hamlets of the Queyras, the Montette was abandoned little by little in the late 19th century. The Sainte Marie Madeleine Chapel renovated in 2003, is the only building still as is in the old hamlet of Montette. There is a trunk standing in front of the chapel. It is the tree of liberty dating from the revolution. Since then, it has been lifted after each fall.

For a long time, bread remained the staple food of the inhabitants of Queyras. Every village in the Republic of Escartons had one or more community ovens. Unlike the community ovens in the kingdom of France, no tax was paid by the users, but the rules on sharing were strict. Each family prepared their dough and used the oven in turns. The first family was in charge of lighting the oven. Once finished cooking, the oven was kept warm for the following ones. The following family cooked and kept the oven warm. This system could take several days and the last family was in charge of cleaning the oven. After each cooking, the order of use changed. Thus the lighting and cleaning were done in turns.

Small religious buildings, oratories can be made of different materials and have various shapes. But they usually have a lot in common: a basement, a fluted column (pillar or column which can include the name of the saint and the donor, the date of construction and various information), the niche containing the saint, and the grid protecting the statue. It is topped with a roof and a cross. Here the Saint Joseph Oratory was erected in honour of the foster father of Jesus, patron saint of families, craftsmen, workers, travellers and exiles, gravediggers and the dying.