In 1869 the people of Extrepiéraz pulled down their fifteenth-century church and built a new, larger one in three years. But they did not knock everything down: they kept the spired bell tower and a part of the building to the south-west, still called the Chapelle des blancs, the chapel of the whites, after the colour of the confraternity's robes.
What to see
The bell tower is thus four centuries older than the church attached to it, and that is not laziness: in the mountains a bell tower costs a great deal, it serves as clock and alarm for the whole hamlet, and as long as it stands it is left alone. Churches get rebuilt, bell towers are inherited.
Inside is a pipe organ of 1896, built by Carlo Vegezzi Bossi, who belonged to one of the most important dynasties of Piedmontese organ makers in Italy. The instrument was restored three times over the twentieth century, which means it stayed in use: an organ that gets repaired is an organ somebody plays.
Visiting
The church is at Extrepiéraz, a hamlet of Brusson, in the val d'Ayas; it is a hamlet church, so it opens mainly for services and in the tourist season. Twenty minutes.
Our editors' tip
Stand to one side and look at the point where the bell tower meets the wall of the church. There you see the joint between two building sites four hundred years apart: different stone, different thicknesses, an alignment that does not quite work out. It is the scar of a village that chose what to throw away and what to keep.