Chapelle Saint-Jacques (Villemartin)

Chapelle Saint-Jacques is the oldest and largest chapel in the parish and resembles a genuine church. Step inside and discover its three colourful altarpieces and learn about the expertise and knowhow of artists from the Baroque period.
The chapel was founded following the act of 12 July 1430 and built in honour of James the Greater or Saint James the Assyrian, the first Bishop of Tarentaise during the 5th century.
Although the chapel only has a "simple" altarpiece, the main décor at the end of the chancel, is indeed a remarkable piece of work, featuring, on either side of the central painting, volute wings and caryatids. But the building also features secondary altar pieces, facing each other, that demonstrate the development in artistic taste between the 18th and 19th centuries. In the past, every Sunday, a low mass (where prayers were recited rather than sung) was celebrated in the chapel before those parishioners who were able, walked to the main town of Bozel to attend high mass.
By 1300, the Brotherhood of Saint-Esprit - the valley's oldest known charitable institution - from Villemartin, was already in existence. The role of the Brotherhood in Villemartin is now a thing of the past; previously, however, every year, at the end of July, they used to prepare a special soup (the soupe de la Saint-Jacques) in a cauldron; the day before the celebration, families were asked for food - butter, beans, potatoes etc - to make the soup which was then distributed to the poor the following day, immediately after mass, with bread also provided by each family. And it's a tradition that continues to this day.