La Haute Maurienne – Site 06a

Termignon (1277 m)

When the Holy Shroud passed through this village, the latter was already located on the spice route between Lyon and Milan, over the Great Mont-Cenis Pass (2,081 m). Numerous gruyere wholesalers ensured that cheese wheels were supplied on both sides of the Alps. At the time, Termignon was described as a ‘cheese mine’. The numerous tolls resulted in very active smuggling.
Eglise de Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption
Termignon has been recorded as existing as early as the twelfth century. A church is believed to have existed on the current site from before the eleventh century. Around 1400, it only had one nave, a semicircular apse, and a simple wooden ceiling. In the fifteenth century, four chapels were built along the walls of the church with openings onto the nave. Important changes were made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially to the steeple, which dates back to 1710. Of particular interest are: the altar-pieces, the calvary, and the mural paintings of the vestibule which date from the same period. A tapestry representing the Holy Shroud used to be kept in this church. It was referenced in 1939 by ethnologist Arnold Van Gennep. Beside the church, the Chapelle Saint Roch, which was restored in the eighteenth century, used to be located in the cemetery for plague victims.
The war memorial and its statue known as ‘La pleureuse’ (mourner)
This pacifist war memorial which was erected after the Second World War is the work of Luc Jaggi-Couvert, a Geneva-born sculptor who had family roots in Termignon. It is a reminder of the sufferings experienced by spouses, mothers or sisters during the war.