PARISH AND CONVENT
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After passing through the imposing portal of the building, you can admire the beautifully frescoed vaulted ceiling inside. On the wall adjacent to the church, you can read the history of the parish (Lutry church and convent). Lutry's origins are attested by a few notes mentioning the existence of a castrum and a fishing village(lustriacum). However, the town really took off in the 11th century, thanks to the establishment of a Benedictine convent. Originally very modest, it consisted of a simple claustrum to the south of the church; its buildings expanded in the 13th and 14th centuries to form a vast monastic complex. In 1577, the vaults of the church's nave and choir were completely covered with Mannerist paintings by the Flemish painter Humbert Mareschet. They represent one of the richest 16th-century decorations in Switzerland. A rarity in Switzerland, especially after the Reformation, which prohibited and even demolished this type of painting. It is said that they were in fact offered to the parish by the authorities in exchange for the parishioners' acceptance of the Reformation. However, the painter avoided all religious and biblical figures, outlawed by the Reformation, and replaced them with zoomorphic figures: atlatls, satyrs, fauns and chimeras. A "grotesque décor" with scrolls and graceful animals, roosters, rabbits and cranes, as well as a masked putto (love) facing a turkey. A possible metaphor for the vanity of those who conceal their personality.
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