Maison Musée Jean Paul II

At Les Combes, the hamlet where John Paul II spent ten summer holidays, a parish-run museum collects the objects, photographs, stamps and coins of his pontificate beside the mountains he chose for rest. Its story is unusually personal for a small village.

Why it matters

Over a pontificate of twenty-seven years, Karol Wojtyla returned to this mountainside above Introd for ten summer holidays, and Les Combes has been known since as the "Lieu dit du Saint Père". The commune created the museum as a public thank-you, and Benedict XVI also chose the village for his own stays, on three occasions. Few places in the Alps can claim that concentrated a papal presence, and the parish-kept museum preserves personal memories of the pope's mountain stays and the community around them.

What to notice

The collection assembles personal belongings of John Paul II alongside documents and photographs covering key moments of his long pontificate, from his apostolic travels worldwide to his presence in the Valle d'Aosta. Two sections are easy to miss: a philatelic display of stamps issued under his pontificate, and a case of coins minted during the same years, which together show how global his image became.

The chapel of San Lorenzo near the museum preserves a lock of the pope's hair as a relic. Its altar, carved by Franco Chevrere in African mahogany, depicts John Paul II.

Context and history

John Paul II began holidaying at Les Combes in 1989 and returned through 2004, drawing world attention to a hamlet of the Gran Paradiso side of the Dora Baltea valley. The museum grew out of the commune's wish to thank a pope who, in its own words, had honoured the Valle d'Aosta with his presence for so many years, and to testify to his role as pastor of a worldwide village. The parish of the Conversione di San Paolo in Introd maintains the museum as a memorial to the pope's stays.