Eglise Paroissiale Sainte Marie Madeleine de Couloubroux

Until the end of the 14th century, Couloubroux was a community in its own right with a castrum mentioned in the early 13th century “castrum Collobroz”. Located on the south side of the col de Maure, on the edge of the Bès, the parish was attached to the diocese of Digne while Seyne was linked to Embrun. The parish church, dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, was served by a “cappelanus de Colobrosio”, it was located above the current village where there still is a cemetery, in the hamlet of La Vière. When the bishop came on the 18th of May 1683, he “climbed to the church dedicated to Mary Magdalene. A painting representing the Crucifixion also showing the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene. An altar to Saint Stephen with a painting of him. After that, we went down to the parish at the end of the village where there is a chapel under the name of Notre Dame d’Espérance.” Thus, there are two religious buildings, the first one is the parish church, on the heights of the village and the second one is a chapel, a further down. The parish church was renovated in 1750 and regularly maintained until the revolution ; the Cassini map (1779) and the 1819 cadastre mention it. And despite the frequent works done by the village, the church deteriorated during the 19th century. In 1850, the abbot Féraud still knew of both churches. A pastoral visit in 1858 informs us that the old church in upper Couloubroux has been forbidden for worship for many years due to its state of disrepair. It was then that the population decided to turn the chapel, located in the middle of the new village and used for penitents gatherings, into a parish church.