Archaeological Museum

 

Inside the Regional Archaeological Museum of Aosta there are Roman works of art such as the silver bust of Jupiter Dolichenus discovered at the Little St. Bernard Pass (dating between the II and the III century). There are also the excavations where the eastern tower and a part of the city's north walls are on view, together with monumental vaulted sustaining remains, which are connected with the Forum area and with the storehouse buildings.

Basilica of San Lorenzo

Under the little late-Gothic church of S. Lorenzo and the adjacent house of the Tiglio, recent archaeo­logical research has brought to light the remains of an early-Christian basilica on a cruciform floor-plan with 4 apses on the end of each respective wing, The basilica dates back to 5^th cent. AD. In the center of the basilica the tomb of bishop Agnello, died in 528, was discovered, while not far from it the burial stones of bishops Grata (5^th cent.) and Gallo (died in 546) had already been brought to light.

The Bard Fortress

The   most   recent example of military architecture   in the Aosta Valley dates back to the first half of the 19^th century: the fortress of Bard, made up of three defense stations placed at different hei­ghts to guard the way of access to the Valley, It rises up on a spectacular spur of rock, which has been fortified since time immemorial; in the 6^th century Teodoricus sited the "clusure Augustanae" here, and in the 11^lh century the place was defined as an "inexpugnabile oppidum". There, in 1800, a small Austro-Piedmontese garrison held out for 15 days against a siege of forty thousand men under Napoleon, who went on to wipe out the insult by destroying the fortress. It was reconstructed in the thirties of the 19^th century and Camillo Benso di Cavour, a young lieutenant of the engineering military corps, who was transferred to Bard in 1831, witnessed the rebuilding works.

The Castle of Fenis

Whoever sees Fenis for the first time is confronted with a castle from a typical childhood dream. The poet Giuseppe Giacosa was struck by this in the last century when he described it as " a band of towers riding up on each other, some sturdy and squa­re, others slim and rounded, and all are crenellated, armed, fortified with all manner of bartizans, they seem to threa­ten violence and abuse of power..." The castle is made up of a central body surrounded by a double boundary wall: a first-rate defensive military structure, necessary in a place lacking in any form of natural defense. The castle has a more light-hearted appearance on the inside, thanks to the elegant balconied courtyard and to the frescos of the Giacomo Jaquerio School (painter of the court of Savoy), which are authentic masterpieces of inter­national Gothic art.

The Castle of Issogne

The castle of Issogne assu­med its present appearance around the year 1500: it was a slow and magnificent transformation from Gothic style to the Renaissance. On the outside it is simply a manor house, but as soon as you pass through the portal, you are immersed in a most extraordinary work of art: The garden courtyard which holds the famous fountain with the wrought iron pomegranate tree, the log­gia, the frescos, the decora­ted coffered ceiling, the rooms with a wealth of period furniture...The wall paintings in the great hall and in the portico illustrate scenes from everyday 15'" century life: the guardhouse, the butcher's shop, the market place, the tailor's shop, and the apothecary's shop. The illustrations con­tinue in the interior, creating a spectacular "fresco" of court life.

The Castle of Savoy

 

The ancient castle of Sarre, reconstructed at the start of the 18th century by the Baron Ferrod, was bought by Vittorio Emanuele II in 1869 and became his favorite retreat for the "royal hunts" in the valleys of Cogne, Champorcher and Valsavarenche. The many chamois and ibex horns (at least 1987 pairs) that adorn the rooms in a macabre manner are evidence of this; on the exterior the hunting king had the soa­ring central tower erected to create an observatory.

 

Giuseppe Giacosa describes Vittorio Emanuele's enthu­siasm for the Aosta Valley as follows: "The King knew mayors, inn-keepers, stable­men, mountain guides and hunters by name, he knew each miraculous deed of the greatest mountaineers by heart, he shook the school master's hand, slapped the mule-driver on the back and gave a scudo to the beggar left crippled from a mine explosion." Many castles undergo resto­ration in the W century, often, like at Saint-Pierre, in a picturesque way. In 1904 a pseudo-medieval manor house is constructed on the wave of Neo-gothic revival, this is the Castel Savoia at Gressoney-Saint-Jean, the queen Margherita's summer residence.

 

The House of Savoy's predilection for the Valley (Vittorio Emanuele II for the hunting, fol­lowed by Margherita for the mountaineering) gave a great promotional boost to tourism. It was a phenomenon comparable to Queen Victoria of England's passion for Scotland, which started the fashion among the English aristocracy for holidays in the Scottish highlands: a mountainous land immersed in wild and powerful natural surroundings. Just like the Aosta Valley, which is "a perfect world of sinuous valleys and rock" according to John Ruskin's definition.

The Castle of Verres

 

Ibletodi Challant constructed the castle of Verres around 1390. The Aosta Valley historian De Tillier defined it as "one of the most powerful castles that a vassal could ever have constructed in a sovereign state" In fact, this fortifi­cation constitutes one of the absolute summits of European late Gothic architecture.

 

The overpowering structure of this enormous stone cube (30 meters in breadth) is refined by crossed and mullioned windows with two lights, arched doorways and by the monu­mental staircase and colossal fireplaces, the most beautiful in the Aosta Valley.

The Cathedral of Aosta

Beneath the Cathedral foundations, paving, baptismal fonts, mosaics, stairways and tombs have been discovered; these are all elements of an Early-Christian basilica, constructed in turn over a 3^rd century Roman edifice. On the floor of the central nave, a sheet of glass reveals the principal baptistery of the Early-Christian basilica below. Such a superimposition of religious edifices marks this area as the heart of sanctity in Aosta. In the Cathedral, the whole evolution of Aosta Valley religious art is on show: the Early-Christian baptistery, the late medieval frescos, the Romanesque bell towers, the Gothic sculptures, the Renaissance atrium, the baroque altars, the Neo-classic facade. There is such an over­lay and amalgamation of centuries and styles in this church that it represents a spiritual and artistic synthesis of the Valley's history.

The Crypto Portico

This is one of the most fascinating and best-preserved places of Roman Aosta; it is a half-buried gallery with two aisles, held up by powerful pillars in travertine stone. The garden in front of the Cathedral, which leads to the Cryptoporticus, marks the level of the forensis sacred area, which included two temples in the center. The plinth of one of these temples is still visible. To the south of the square opened the wide porticoed forsensis public area.

The Great Baroque Altars

These sculpted and painted wooden altars were the culmination of the Aosta Valley art of this period. The 17^th century was characterized by a more austere form of Baroque, still conditioned by Gothic essentiality and by Renaissance rigor. It is the 18^th century, the golden era of rococo, that sees the arrival of decorative motifs, in the form of engravings, painted and gilded statues and spiral-shaped columns: the apex of which is seen in the 182 elements forming the altar of the parish church of Issime. The most important examples, often astoni­shing for the very contrast between the rural simplicity of the church's architecture and the ornamental profusion of the altar, are found at Lillianes, at Fontainemore and in the sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie at Gaby (in the valley of Gressoney), at Gignod, Arvier, Champorcher and in the church of San Martino at Antagnod. In Aosta, baroque altars that are not to be missed are that of the church of Saint-Etienne and the two marble masterpieces in the Cathedral and in Sant'Orso.

In this epoch, the feudal fortresses are no longer used to make war but to entertain, and are transformed into lordly palatial residences. Such is the case of the castle of the Passerin d'Entreves at Saint-Christophe, where the elegant and pacific appearance belies deadly stories of black magic practiced in the 18^th cen­tury. The Aymavilles castle was transformed in 1728 into a rococo palace set between the ancient forti­fied castle's four crenellated towers: today it is seen as an enchantingly puzzling contrast, but the 19^th century travelers who illustrated the beauties of the Valley in their diaries were outraged by it. The Montfleury villa, on the outskirts of Aosta, was built at the end of the 18^th century: its palatial rooms witnessed the sumptuous balls of the 19th century aristo­cracy and the romantic idyll between the wri­ter Xavier de Maistre and Elisa Barillier at the height of the French revolution.

The House of Sant'Anselmo

From Augustus's Arch, continue on into via San­t'AnseImo, dedicated to the theologian and philosopher, forerunner of the Scholastic and Doc­tor of the Church (1033 - 1109), who is reputed to have been born in a building facing onto this road, as the inscription on a stone at the side of no. 66 confirms. The house, only dated back to 1505, so the hypothesis that the saint was born near Gressian is still valid. Sant'AnseImo followed his training in the Abbey of Bee in Normandy, where he was-soon made a prior; he later became the arch­bishop of Canterbury, where he died. At present it is not open.

The Madonna delle Nevi

La Madonna delle nevi sanctuary at Cuney (Saint-Barthelemy) is an isolated place that can be reached only in the warmer seasons: it dates back to 1650. A climb of two hours beyond the waterfalls of Retempio: this is the processional route, which leads to the sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Visitazione at Pontboset. The sanctuary of La Madonna del Miserin at Champorcher takes its name and origin from a statue found on the shores of the lake, and stands in a remarkable position at a height of 2583 meters. The procession (a five-hour climb) is a tradition from the middle of the 18^th century.

The Monuments of Sant'Orso

 

Sant'Orso is a completely unique monumental structure within the length and breadth of the Alps. The collegiate church is a contemporary of the Cathedral, and like it underwent many modifications, as its present Gothic facade dating back to the 15th century shows it.

 

To the interior, frescos depicting the life of Christ and stories of the apostles date back to the 11th century. The area in which the medieval religiousness of Sant'Orso is most palpably and thoroughly experienced is the cloister. The marvelous capitals are made of marble from Aymaville and they are historiated with evangelical and biblical scenes and scenes from the life of Saint Orso; they were carried out, with the exception of three capitals on the east side, around the middle of the 12^th century, as can be established from an inscription on one of them. Frightening figures of monsters are alternated with the edifying figures of saints, which in turn alternate with decorations of leaves and shoots and with illustrations of moments in the history of the collegiate church and of its patron saint, all combining to give a spec­tacular idea of the eloquence of medieval vision.

 

The bell tower (dating back to the 12^th century) is the most impressive in the region, and it also originally functioned as a place of refuge, as it is surrounded and defended by a bat­tlement wall. Under the collegiate church lies an 11^th century crypt, presenting a veritable forest of columns dating from various epochs, in the very site where one of the Valley's first Christian churches arose.

The Museum of the Cathedral of Aosta

 

This is situated in the ambulatory and it has an absolute masterpiece on display: the ivory diptych representing the emperor Onorius, from the year 406. The museum is a com­bination of various eras, styles and sources; some items have always been part of the Cathedral Treasures, while others were collected more recently from other churches around the valley.

The Palazzo Roncas

The Palazzo Roncas in Aosta with its elaborate frescos is one of the most splendid examples of civilian baroque, the mark of a sumptuous era (late 17^th century) when the aristocracies of Savoy and Piedmont filled its halls with gran­diose parties. But baro­que art in the Aosta Valley   was   mostly religious; the fresco on the facade of the parish church    of    Issime depicting the Day of Judgment is an example of   the   unrestrained decorative fervor of artists of the time. In lesser religious art the style remains tied to traditional Gothic forms, adorned with dazzling baroque ornamentation.

The Pretorian Gate

Of the four city gates, the only one remaining is the eastern Porta Praetoria. Today the ground has risen up on it by 3 meters: it is described by Promis as "one of the most beautiful and best preserved city gateways of the Roman world". It truly is one of the greatest remaining of our day. In ancient times it was sealed off with a mighty portcullis, the joints of which can be seen in the breadth (4.53 m) of the walls, upon which was mounted a guard's walkway. The two lateral archways were designated for the passage of pedestrians, and the larger central one, for carriages.

The Roman Arch of Augustus

This imposing monument towers over the western outskirts of Aosta, near the course of the Buthier River. The arch is perfectly aligned on the axis be­tween the Roman bridge and the Pretorian Gate (see no. 6), which constituted the eastern entrance of the city wall. It was built in 25 B.C. (the year the city was founded) both to commemorate the victory of the Roman troops, under the consul Terenzio Varrone Murena, over the proud local tribe of the Salassi, and in homage to Augustus. The honorary monument, with a single supporting Arch is 11.5 m high, with each vault measuring 8.81 m. Built in block of pud­ding-stone, it represents a mixture of Dorian and Corinthian styles: the four half-columns which deco­rate each facade and three of its sides are actual­ly completed by Corinthian capitals, but sustain a Dorian trabeation. The penthouse was replaced in 1716 by a slate roof with four slopes to avoid water seepage (1912). The statues and trophies deco­rating the niches and the penthouse were removed during Barbarian invasions. Under the vault, there was a 15^th century wooden crucifix called "of the Saint Voult" (of the Holy Face) placed in 1449 (now the Saint Voult is in the Treasure museum of the Cathedral and a copy of it is in its place). The Arch of Augustus is the symbol of the town of Aosta.

The Roman Bridge

Coming from Ivrea, the first ancient monument that welcomes the visitor, close to the confluence of the Dora Baltea and Buthier rivers, is the Roman bridge, which characterizes the eastern part of the city and is actually called 'Font de Pierre' i.e. 'bridge of stone'. Parallel to corso Ivrea, the bridge is on a slightly raised level, perfectly preserved and still used for thoroughfare, even though in the Middle Ages the Buthier changed its course and its waters no longer run under the single 17.16 m wide arch of the humpbacked bridge. It is approximately 6 m wide and was built in the time of Augustus at the end of the 1^st century B.C. with slabs of stone, in typical Roman style, imposing but elegant.

The Roman Theatre

 

Only the colossal southern face of this grandiose theatre remains standing: it is 22 meters high and is protected by a scaffolding structure in an attempt to preserve its integrity. It manages, in spite of this modern day metal support, to transmit the impres­sive greatness of an edifice that held up to 3000 people in its heyday. The majestic faca­de (which is still visible), of the main rectangular body of the building, which surroun­ded the semicircular cave, gives weight to the hypothesis of a covered theatre.

 

The remains of the amphitheatre are contained in the nearby monastery of Santa Caterina; this could hold up to twenty thousand people, more than the entire population of Aosta. There are still eight arcades surrounded by hardly rough-hewn Tuscan semi-columns. It probably had no area for keeping animals, which were usually a typical element of Roman games. This structure was later used in medieval times for "judgments of God" which were fierce clashes where the victor of a physical duel was also judged victor of the juridical dispute.

The Statue of Madonna

The discovery of a statue of the Madonna is at the origin of many sanctuaries in the Aosta Valley. Once, where the Madonna delle nevi sanctuary at Machaby stands today, a statue of the Virgin Mary was found. It was moved to a field, but the day after it was found back in its original place. Today it is still preserved on a niche of the main altar. The sanctuary of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde at Perioz was born from a statue of Mary, found in the 14^th century. The sanctuary of Madonna di Plout at Saint-Marcel has been a sacred place since the 14^th century: a statue of the Madonna was found here, and in 1640 a bricklayer who was miraculously cured constructed the first chapel there.