Chapelle Pointue, Catholic chapel in Villèle, Saint-Paul, Réunion, France

Chapelle Pointue is a Catholic chapel in the Villèle district of Saint-Paul, Réunion. Its exterior combines a grey stone facade with a bell tower and a curved yellow-ochre wall pierced by a single arched doorway. Above the walls rises an octagonal white drum with arched windows, topped by a steep grey conical spire and a cross. Inside, 24 bays of pointed-arch arcatures decorate the chapel.

The chapel was built in 1841 by Ombline Desbassayns to evangelize enslaved people. A cyclone destroyed the building later, and it was completely reconstructed in 1933.

The chapel is dedicated to the Virgin and to Saint Ombeline, patron saint of its founder Ombline Desbassayns, whose name it echoes. Inside, a marble altar carries a bas-relief of the Deposition from the Cross by the sculptor Bousquet, a native of Nantes. A local legend holds that lightning struck Madame Desbassayns's tomb because of her cruelty toward her slaves.

The chapel is not open on its own: it is visited as part of a circuit offered by the Musée historique de Villèle, the museum housed in the former Desbassayns plantation house nearby. Plan the chapel as one stop within that museum visit and check the museum's opening days before setting out.

A local legend holds that lightning struck Madame Desbassayns's tomb because she had been cruel to her slaves. The story is told alongside the 1932 cyclone that destroyed the chapel, which was rebuilt and blessed by Monseigneur de Beaumont in 1933.