La Salette-Fallavaux

La Salette- Fallavaux (also simply La Salette ) is a commune in the department of Isère, in the Rhône -Alpes. It belongs to the district of Grenoble and the Canton Corps.

The municipality is known as a place of pilgrimage: and within their boundaries is founded by the Salettinerorden monastery of Notre- Dame de La Salette.

Geography

The small village with 74 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2011) is secluded at the end of a side at the southwestern foot of the Massif des Ecrins in the vicinity of the lake Lac du Sautet in the French Alps close to 1,000 m above sea level. The distance to the north city of Grenoble is located about 70 kilometers to Gap in the south is 45 kilometers.

A ten kilometer long serpentine leads up to the monastery church, which hardly about two kilometers away from the village, but at 1757 m altitude is (44 ° 51 ' 31.4 " N, 5 ° 58' 43.2 " O44.8587095.9786641757 ).

Marian apparition

On September 19, 1846 by three clock in the afternoon to the two shepherd children Mélanie Calvat (15 years) and Maximin Giraud in clear weather on a the hamlet nearby mountain have appeared to the Virgin Mary (11 years). The " beautiful lady " as she was called by the youth is said to have wept with grief.

For the fifth anniversary of this traditional event has been recognized as a Marian apparition of the Catholic Church. Again one year later, in 1852, the Bishop of Grenoble proposed the construction of a basilica, which was completed in 1865.

In addition to the more widely known Marian shrines such as Lourdes and Fatima the apparition of La Salette is now pushed into the background.