La COMBE DE SAVOIE – Site 18

Les Abymes de Myans

On November 24, 1248, part of the cliff‐face of Mont Granier collapsed, causing a major landslide. Half a billion cubic metres of rock and mud spread across 32 square kilometres of the valley. Sixteen locations were destroyed, which made several thousands of victims. It was the largest natural catastrophe in the Middle Ages. In that ‘no man’s land’, the border between Savoy and Dauphiné was established, which led to numerous smuggling operations, to several invasions and battles, and to the foundation in 1301 by Amédée V of a new fortified town called ‘Les Marches’. The count of Savoy planted vineyards there. Today, this area is the first wine‐growing terroir of Savoy and the cradle of the Jacquère.
The sanctuary. Legend has it that the place which was protected by the Virgin when the Granier collapsed attracted popular devotion. Erected in the fifteenth century and restored several times in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the current sanctuary consists of two places of worship on top of each other. The numerous pilgrims who visit this place can indeed contemplate the two‐level churches at a glance as they enter the sanctuary. It has a rare and unusual layout. The lower part of the crypt houses the miraculous statue of the Black Virgin appearing with baby Jesus in her arms. In contrast, the upper church was granted to the Franciscans who attended to the sanctuary until the Revolution.
Myans has become an important place of Marian pilgrimage. After the translation of the Holy Shroud to Turin and from 1588 onwards, Myans became the place of pilgrimage of the people of Chambéry, who especially came there to be protected from plague epidemics. Every year, 80,000 pilgrims from all over the world come to the sanctuary.