Courmayeur · Italy
Notre-Dame de la Guérison
This sanctuary stands below the Brenva glacier, in a place held for centuries to be dangerous and sacred in equal measure. Inside, the walls are covered with votive offerings: crutches, photographs, plaques, small painted panels left by people who promised some offering in exchange for a recovery, a safe return, a disaster avoided. They are documents of fear, and they are numerous. Outside, the glacier that advanced for generations and threatened the valley is now retreating, and rapidly. The place has remained the same; the mountain above it has not. That too, in a few decades, will be a story to tell.
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What healings were claimed?
Mostly recoveries from illness and escapes from mountain danger: avalanches, falls, accidents at work. The offerings describe the daily life of a valley better than any chronicle.
Why here?
Because it is where you passed beneath the glacier. A place of real danger attracts devotion: people pray where they are afraid, and here the fear had a precise address.
Can I visit it?
Yes, it sits on the road towards Val Veny and is open. It also gives one of the most direct views of the Italian side of the massif.
Where it is
More stories in Courmayeur
- The Aiguille Blanche
- The Aiguille Noire
- Duke of the Abruzzi Alpine Museum
- The Brenva Spur
- The Guides' House
- Church of Saint Pantaléon
- The quiet col
- The Col de la Seigne