Parrocchiale di Sant'Anna

The parish church of St Anne stands on Champoluc's central square. Consecrated in 1970, its exposed-concrete form marks a modern turn in the architecture of the Val d'Ayas.

Why it matters

Champoluc grew rapidly as a ski and hiking resort in the twentieth century, and its old chapel became far too small for summer crowds and winter tourists. The new church of St Anne, built between 1965 and 1970, was the answer. The parish describes it as the first genuinely modern church in the Val d'Ayas: a deliberate break from classical models in favour of simplicity and function.

What to notice

The plan is roughly ovoid, and the curved walls pull inward as they rise, producing what the parish describes as an interior like a tent held up by four sails. The roof is a copper-covered pyramid capped by a small lantern-like dome. Three details define the interior:

• The old bell tower of the previous church was kept and integrated into the new structure as one of the supports for the four great roof slopes — a literal connection between the resort's modern face and its older religious life.
• Light enters through narrow vertical slits between the curved walls, so the interior changes character through the day rather than relying on conventional windows.
• The furnishings mix periods: an eighteenth-century carved, painted and partly gilded wooden altar from the old chapel now stands beside the presbytery as the tabernacle housing, while the main altar is cut from local stone and flanked by a large wooden crucifix by the Milanese sculptor Buttafava. The abstract stained glass and decorated doors are the work of the Turin artist Ezio Gribaudo.

A small ovoid weekday chapel sits to the right of the main entrances.

Context and history

Tourism pressure in the mid-twentieth century left the parish of Champoluc with a rettoria that could no longer hold its congregation. The parish priest Don Cesare Menegazzo drove the project for a larger church on an adjacent site. The design came from Professor Mario Roggero, then dean of the Faculty of Architecture in Turin, and the building work was carried out by the Impresa Vieta Quinto of Forno Canavese. The church was consecrated on 30 August 1970 by the Bishop of Aosta, Monsignor Ovidio Lari. A large meeting hall lies beneath the church floor. The material palette — raw concrete, wood, and the local stone of the altar — was intended to read as honest mountain building rather than urban modernism.