Church Saint-Michel

The Church of St Michel de Cervières surprises in its solitude, perched on the outlet of the torrent of Alpe at the narrowest point of the valley, dominating by far the roofs of the village, in a setting of rocks. It was built in the last years of the Middle Ages and is part of the vast movement to rebuild the churches of Briançon after the annexation of Dauphiné to France, with peace returned, the end of the great plague and a strong population growth. Completed in 1471, for the original nave and bell tower, the church dedicated to Saint-Michel (Archange terrassant le dragon) is entirely part of the typology of churches of the Haute Durance. Remarkable for its bell tower, built on the simplified model of the cathedral of Embrun: square tower and octagonal spire that is visible, bypassed by four pyramidions, floor of bells with geminate bay. A type of bell tower that is a major component of the Briançon landscape. Remarkable for the volume of its nave covered with shingles whose ridge angle is the same as that of the village houses. But with gables highlighted by fine Lombard arcatures. Inside arched ridges on two bays. A choir was added to it in 1535, also arched, which is distinguished from the body of the church by a clear narrowing. The altar is endowed with a baroque golden leaf altarpiece: a note of glory in the mountain austerity of the building. The gallery has two dates 1602 and 1763; it is contemporary with the left side nave, they respond to a need for places in the church due to the increase in population, in the logic of an evolutionary construction. This is how a powerful effect of balance emerges in the profile of the unhooked roofs, (clearly visible from the road descending from Aittes) from the nave to the choir and from the choir of the sacristy. Remarkable again by its porch open on the southern facade in accordance with the use of other valleys (Vallouise, La Salle, Eygliers etc...) where the cold of long winters requires to open doors and windows on the sunny facade. A wooden canopy protects it, supported by two pillars, placed on two ancient capitals, reversed in reuse, from the primitive Romanesque church. Built in the second half of the 15th century, while the Renaissance was already at work in the other provinces of France, Saint Michel de Cervières is Gothic in its structure: its master builder, Rémy Fantin who left his signature on an angle stone, has well endowed the nave with ogive crosses. But a Gothic that has kept "the Romanesque spirit": the narrow and rare windows, the collected of its silhouette, silence and recollection of its interior volume.