Chapelle Notre-Dame de Lourdes

Situated on this belvedere at an altitude of 1000m at a place called "Le Perreu" this chapel was built following a vow made by the priest Joseph Marcellin Gellion in Montperreux in 1871. At a time when the Prussians were invading the region, this priest and his parishioners vowed to build a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes if the Virgin would protect the parish. It was so, there was no death, no fight, no destruction, no damage to people and houses during the war of 1870 in this commune.
Father Gellion died in 1873. Since his wish was granted, his successor, Father Auguste Donat Paquette, undertook its construction in 1889. The stone was extracted from a quarry in the municipality, as well as the wood for the frame, which was felled in a communal forest. Some parishioners offered a certain number of days to prepare these materials for a contractor.
All these acquisitions and constructions were carried out thanks to the generosity of many people. Our Lady of Lourdes was installed inside as well as a communion table made by Father Paquette. At that time, there was a great devotion to the Virgin in this place. Several times a year a mass was celebrated there.
For many years, the faithful went there in procession on August 15 for the blessing of the children or at rogations to pray for the protection of the goods of the Earth as well as in May to recite the rosary.
In 1983, lightning struck the bell tower as a warning not to forget this oratory and to restore it.
In 1984, work was carried out. The bell tower was rebuilt in local stone, the bell was put back in place and a door with a protective canopy was installed
By its presence this modest chapel connects us to a past often forgotten, even erased from our memories.