Notre Dame des Neiges Chapel and the hamlet of Beaupraz

This baroque-style chapel in the hamlet of Beaupraz was founded in 1705 on the road to Les Lauyes’ high mountain pastures. Dedicated to Notre Dame des Neiges (Our Lady of the Snows), it was on 5 August 366 that the Virgin Mary sent down a fall of snow to mark the site in Rome where the Basilica of Saint Mary Major was to be built. The painting on the altarpiece and the front of the altar both depict the Visitation (Saint Mary’s visit to her cousin Elisabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist). Saint John the Baptist is also depicted on the right of the altar. Saint Lawrence, Patron Saint of the poor, holds a palm branch and the gridiron associated with his martyrdom. The hamlet of Beaubraz still contains a few old montagnettes (little stone houses, only inhabited when the snows have passed). Down below lies the hamlet of Les Lanches, its houses aligned in the direction of the slope, each one protecting its neighbour.
Evening Mass held in summertime