The 1458 Monthouz panel
A trompe-l'œil that looks carved but is flat.
Krzysztof Golik — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Krzysztof Golik — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Krzysztof Golik — CC BY-SA 4.0 · GFreihalter — CC BY-SA 4.0
The cathedral (Saint-Pierre) is larger, is the bishop's seat and has a Renaissance front; it is the official monument. **Saint-Maurice is older** — fifteenth century — and its value is in **wall painting** rather than architecture: the trompe-l'œil Monthouz panel of 1458 and the murals uncovered around it beneath the limewash. Both are free and minutes apart on foot in the old town, so the question hardly arises in practice: you see both in half an hour.
**Twenty minutes to half an hour** is plenty. The church is not large and the visit amounts to one circuit, a stop at the Monthouz panel, then the other murals and the floor slabs. That makes it an ideal addition rather than a destination in itself: you are already in the old town among the canals and the Palais de l'Île, so step in for twenty minutes and step out. Anyone specifically interested in medieval painting might spend twice that.
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Annecy's oldest church, built in the fifteenth century for the Dominican friars in the heart of the old town, steps from the canals and the Palais de l'Île. Its frontage is modest and does not stand out among the street's façades, which is part of the surprise. Inside it is late Gothic, with pointed arches and a timber roof, but what really distinguishes it are the **wall paintings**. The best known is a huge funerary panel painted in 1458 for a Savoyard knight named **Philibert de Monthouz**, executed in trompe-l'œil so that it appears to be a carved stone monument projecting from the wall when it is in fact entirely flat. The trick still works: you go closer to check. Other paintings from various centuries survive on the walls, some uncovered beneath layers of limewash during later restorations, along with the floor tombstones of the old town's families. It is a short visit — twenty minutes is enough — but the kind most visitors walk past without entering, and then regret once they learn what is inside.
A trompe-l'œil that looks carved but is flat.
Paintings of several centuries found under limewash.
Old town families buried beneath your feet.
Rue Filaterie, 74000 Annecy