The history of the Church of St. Nicola

The first document about the parish church of La Thuile dates back to 1093, when Bosone II,bishop of Aosta, gave Saint Nicholas’ church and the Little Saint Bernard’s hospice to the Saint-Gilles’ monastery of Verrès.In Eugene III’s bull of 1145 and in the Innocent III’s one of 1207, the church of La Thuile and the hospice of the Little Saint Bernard still appeared as dependent on the city of Verrès. By his chapterin 1243, the priest of Verrès entrusted the priests of the Little Saint Bernard with the parish of LaThuile and with all the properties from Pré-Saint-Didier to Saint Maurice de Tarentaise (Bourgsaint-Maurice).

La Thuile’s church depended on the hospice of the Little Saint Bernard until 1466, when this onepassed under the congregation of the Grand Saint Bernard, while the parish directly passed to thebishop of Aosta. During the 17th and the 18th centuries, the French troops coming down from theLittle Saint Bernard Pass sacked the church several times. In 1794, the church that has beenconsecrated by monsignor Pierre-François de Sales on June, 15th 1742, has been destroyed in a firethat has been set by the French troops.The existing church, which dates back to 1742, is made up of one single chamber, two side apsesand a presbytery. Inside it’s very simple and essential. By reading the archives, we know that in the15th century there were three altars: the most important one was dedicated to Saint Nicholas,another one to the Holy Mary and the last one to Saint John Baptist.

The rectory contains somefragments of an altar, which dates back to the 18th Century and which is probably connected to thehomonym brotherhood once operating in the parish church of Saint Nicholas.At the present time, the side apses contain some fragments of an altar with twisted columns, whilein the presbytery, a tabernacle of the 18th century coming from Saint Catherine’s monastery inAosta stands behind the stone altar. The present settlement of the main altar dates back to theEighties. Ettore Mazzini’s paintings made in 1945 and representing some episodes of theCrucifixion and of the lives of Saint Nicholas and of Our Lady can be found all along the innerwalls.The wooden crucifix placed above the triumphal arch is very interesting as well; it miraculouslysurvived the plundering by the French troops, as it is reported on the inscription painted on thevault: “Coeteris cunctis bello vastatis 1794 haec Christi imago mirabiliter intacta remansit. Deogratia”.