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Built heritage

Traditional housing



Abriès / Ristolas – Reconstruction


The buildings here have undergone numerous fires and floods but the layout of the original market town has survived. A few houses, such as the ancient covered market and the building near to the church, bear witness to the town’s past.
The rest of the Haut-Guil valley, together with Ristolas, La Monta and l’Echalp suffered at the hands of various natural catastrophes and bombing raids during the Second World War.

Aiguilles - Les Barcelonnettes


The urban villas, with their South American feel, date from the end of the 19th century and give the town a very different look from the other communes. A large number of textile workers emigrated to South America between the 17th and 19th centuries and upon their return, having made their fortunes, they had these large town houses built. The Aiguilles town hall is a good example of this style.

Arvieux – Arcades with Italian origins


Here the visitor finds rectangular, two or three-storey stone buildings. Their south-facing open sides have, in their central sections, loggias above one another. The wooden balustrades are where the harvests were dried. The roofs are covered in larch shingles.

Ceillac - Compact and austere


The sturdy looking houses are not very open on the road side and are very often built in an L-shape. The lower sections are in stone while the upper sections are made out of wood (larch). They have vaulted underground cowsheds and the roofs are made from larch shingles for longevity.

Molines / Saint Véran – ‘Fustes’


The old houses here are based on an unusual design: the ground floor has thick, stone walls surmounted by larch logs crossing at the corners like log cabins. These upper sections with their galleries and balconies were for storing the harvests. The roofing is made of larch shingles on massive solid frameworks. The living areas are covered in ‘schiste’ flagstone (thick, flat stones) laid out in an overlapping scale design.

Religious heritage


A feature of the religious heritage of the Queyras, with its rather sombre architecture and Lombard influence, is the use of local materials and an exchange of expertise between stone and woodcraft.

Churches enjoying ‘historic monument status’:

- Church of Sainte Cécile in Ceillac. Dates from: 14th century. Sections enjoying protected status since 1972: belfry
- Church of Saint André in Château-Ville-Vieille. Dates from: 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Sections enjoying protected status since 1948: belfry and porch
- Church of St-Romain in Molines. Dates from: 15th and 17th centuries. Sections enjoying protected status since 1977: belfry, choir, interior décor.
- Saint Véran church. Dates from: last quarter of the 17th century. Protected status since 1973.


Several chapels, oratories and crosses punctuate the Queyras countryside, notably the ‘mission crosses’ in Saint Véran, which are decorated with symbols and instruments from the Passion of Christ.
Religious art in the Queyras: an open-air museum.