Mountain pass around Grenoble

Mountain church with a typical Dauphin porch bell tower, featuring 8 stained glass windows, created by the painter Arcabas and realized by the master glass artist Christophe Berthier. Flyer and small guide available at the Tourist Information Office.The church of Sappey-en-Chartreuse has been a symbolic landmark for nearly nine centuries, at the entrance to a mountain range marked by religious spirituality. Attested on the site since 1115, the building was redesigned in the 17th century and then in the 19th century with the help of the monks of the Grande Chartreuse. The eight stained glass windows that adorn the church are the work of Arcabas. They represent the Resurection of Christ and were made by Christophe Berthier, a master glass artist from Grenoble.

The renovated property of painter Ernest Hébert invites visitors to step into the artist's 19th century world and to discover his work through the presentation of his collections.The Hébert museum of La Tronche is a somewhat unusual museum: sheltered behind walls, this two and a half hectare estate has protected itself from the wears of time. The artist's house has held onto the spirit of the place and the intimate character of a family house. The garden, sometimes hidden in the shadows, still holds onto the artist's memories of Italy. The museum, as soon as it opened in 1979, set a double mission for itself: encourage a better knowledge of 19th century art through the artist's collection and to promote contemporary artists, both aspiring and confirmed. The permanent exhibit halls take the visitor on a journey through Ernest Hébert's long artistic career via his works and those of his friends. They illustrate the academics, whose complexity and importance we are rediscovering today and which sheds light on official art. Between the romanticism of Eugene Delacroix and the symbolism of Gustave Moreau, Hébert paves the way for a deeper understanding of 19th century aesthetic movements. The painter Ernest Hébert (1817-1908), after having studied at l'Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris and winning the Grand Prix of Rome for historic painting, became famous with "La Malaria" which he presented at the 1850 Salon. A flourishing career was set before him and he shared his time between France and Italy, where he served twice as director of the Academy of France in Rome (1867-1873 and 1885-1890). He very soon became a sought-after portraitist for high Parisian society during the Second Empire and Third Republic, where he frequented upper class salons. Hébert keenly expressed the poetry and secrecy of his feminine models, but it was in Italy that he found the most inspiration, preferring to depict rural scenes imprinted with a melancholic realism. He was responsible for the mosaic on the apse of the Pantheon, inaugurated in 1884. The museum Through a chronological and thematic layout, the museum presents Hébert's work plus the paintings and sculptures of his friends and students. His years of study, his life at the Villa Medicis, his stays in Italy, the two terms he spent as a director, and his Parisian career are presented. The recreated studio has been restored to its original function. The numerous drawings included in the collection are presented in rotation, in the drawing room, set up in one of the house's bedrooms (2nd floor). The house The house recreates the atmosphere that the artist knew with its period furniture and souvenirs, including the restored Laetitia Bonaparte salon. The impressive 17th century frescoes, uncovered during renovation work, depict the ancient history of the house. Numerous testimonies from Hébert's mentors—David d'Angers, Delaroche, his friends from the Académie de France in Rome, Gounod, Regnault,--and his patrons—Théophile Gautier or Princess Mathilde—evoke his career as well as illustrating the artististic wealth of the prolific 19th century. The gardens Set aside from urban life, the museum's park, with its shaded alleyways, rippling brooks, and trellises, has held onto the charm of the artist's "secret garden." In 2004, it was recognized as a "Remarkable Garden," an award recently created by the Ministry of Culture and Communication. This label recognizes the garden's quality and charm, whose richness stems as much from its 17th and 18th century origins as from the modifications made by Ernest Hébert and his wife Gabrielle. The juxtaposition of well groomed, Italian style areas with English garden-type landscapes, the antique elements, and the numerous water basins are reminiscent of the Villa Medicis in Rome and make for an original setting, open freely to the public.

The second gate of the city to be preserved among the five gates of the 17th century enclosure, the Saint Laurent Gate was built in 1615 and allowed to reach Savoy by the right bank of the Isère in the Grésivaudan valley.Included in the new casemated fortifications built around 1830 by General Haxo and saved from destruction, in the second half of the 19th century, by the construction of the quays of the Isère, which thus accommodated the flow of traffic, the Porte Saint Laurent is still a fine example of 17th century defensive architecture. In this respect, the exterior façade, on the La Tronche side, is the most interesting. One can still observe the machicolation protecting the vaulted passage and the two bretches intended to defend the pedestrian doors. The Saint Laurent gate is also the only one to have kept its heavy wooden doors, dated from the 19th century. Until 1864, the city gates were closed from 10 pm to 7 am. The Saint Laurent gate was open from 5 am. The building was listed in 1931.

Built in 1837 and modernized in 1909, it is located where first bridge of the city (end of the 11th century) once stood. This original bridge was often destroyed by the Isère's rise in the water level.The bridge was for a long time the only passageway over the Isere river. Until the floods of 1651, the old bridge featured a chapel of Our Lady and an animated wooden sculpture that rang out the hours.