The church of Saint-Marcel de La Chambre is the successor to an earlier building that would have been the seat of a Benedictine priory. Very little information is available about that establishment, which was secularized in the sixteenth century, when it no longer had a community. A notable early thirteenth-century portal survives, probably belonging to the priory church.
In the last quarter of the eleventh century, at a time when Artaud was bishop of Maurienne, he granted six churches to the abbey of San Michele della Chiusa (Piedmont), including this one, where a priory was founded. According to the few surviving records, the transaction was concluded with the exchange of a white horse. By the beginning of the fourteenth century there was no longer a community and the site had apparently fallen into ruin, although the title of prior was retained. Around 1500, Antoine de Poldo, a canon of Maurienne, was its commendatory prior; at that time it was recorded that the site had lost all its possessions, including furniture, liturgical ornaments, books and archives.
In 1515, Pope Leo X authorized the creation of a collegiate church there, in accordance with the wishes of Louis de Seyssel, Count of La Chambre. The building was restored and adapted. The present church, with three aisles, was constructed between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The portal probably belongs to the former priory church: it consists of a semicircular arch in alabaster, supported by two columns on each side. The capitals are historiated, with biblical scenes, especially from the New Testament. It is considered a work of the first quarter of the thirteenth century.
Story of Cain and Abel
Entry of Christ into Jerusalem
- BERNARD, Félix (1931). Le Décanat de Val-Penouse. Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Savoie. Chambéry
- BESSE, J.-M.; i altres (1939). Abbayes et prieurés de l'ancienne France. Vol. 9: Province ecclésiastique de Vienne. Abbaye de Ligugé
- DALMASSO, Laurence (2001). Le couvent des Frères Mineurs Conventuels de La Chambre en Maurienne. Étude historique et archéologique. Art et histoire de l’art. Univ. Pierre Mendés France
- REYNAUD, Jean-François (1965). Le portail de La Chambre. Congrès archéologique de France, 123 ss. Société française d'archéologie
- TRUCHET, S. (1898). Excursion à La Chambre le 15 juin 1897. Travaux de la Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de maurienne. Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne: Vulliermet
Saint-Marcel de La Chambre is located in the centre of La Chambre, south of Albertville