The Shrine of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges of Machaby is part of the ancient sanctuaries valdostans placed in isolated localities and the destination of the devotional processions. In a deep valley and thick chestnut woods, abandoned the paved road that starts from Arnad, a dirt road, the ancient mule track Pavià du Bioley, leads to the evocative sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna delle Nevi place half coast before arriving to the village of Machaby and strong recently restructured.
Every year on 5 August there is celebrated the feast of the Madonna delle Nevi. An ancient legend has it that the Sanctuary was built on the place where it was found a wooden statue of the Madonna: according to this legend, the pastors who had found in a bush the sistemarono immediately in the oratory of the overlying village; but, miraculously, the day after, the statue was again in the same bush, as indicating the place chosen for the sacred building.
The family of painters Artari was originally from Campione d’Italia and active already in the XVII century; we find descendants of this family in many European countries (Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, England). A representative, Maria Luigi Artari settled in Aosta Valley (1832); his three sons, Alessandro, Augusto and Antonio, had the opportunity to form at the Accademia Albertina in Turin and succeed then among the protagonists of the sacred art in Valle d’Aosta in the second half of the XIX century. They are the authors of the frescoes in the cupola of the sanctuary (1856).