Valle d'Aosta: the castles valley in European mountains

A trip to discover Aosta, small capital with an ancient past, and the fairy powerful castles of the Vallée, from the Roman ruins to the powerful and rich castles of Fénis, Verrès and Issogne through millenary routes preserving important traces of Roman age.

Powerful and wealthy. A sort of Mike Tyson of the mountains. We are talking about the castles of the Vallée, the valley extending from Aosta until Pont-Saint-Martin, veritable symbol of the highest European mountains. But these high mountains were by themselves unable to protect the fragmented Medieval reigns of Valle d'Aosta. And this is why the masters of those times, relentlessly exerting their power, hastened to erect veritable fortresses to protect their domains. There are about 70 citadels along the Vallée and this is a sign of an extremely intensive feudal history that we will relive in this travel backwards in the time.

Our itinerary starts in Aosta, seat of the regional self-council: set on a 582 meters high plateau and surrounded by imposant mountains. Already the Romans understood how important it may be to settle firmly in a strategic area as for the access to the main Alpine passes: they grounded Augusta Praetoria in a large fertile district where Varrone the Consul had already established his fixed camp to control the Alpine routes to the Gauls. After the Barbarian invasions, Aosta passed to the Savoia family who respected its authonomy.

From Aosta we go down the Vallée through the high way SS 26. Three kilometers far, set in a wide hilly area on the left bank of the Dora river, among orchards and vines, we visit Saint-Christophe, a village of Roman origins that preserves many interesting archeological traces. It is also worth visiting its church, that has a high Romanic bell tower with a pyramidal spire at the top and preserves a triumphal crucifix of 1400. The municipality boasts two castles: the Passerin d'Entrèves and the Duca degli Abruzzi.

Not far raises the most popular and fairy castle of Val d'Aosta: the Fénis castle. Built in the XIV century by the Challant in a nice clearing, it presents all the elements that usually characterize the Middle Age castles: embattled walls and sighting towers provided with rounds and trap-doors.

Saint-Vincent is for sure the most popular tourist resort of Valle d'Aosta also thanks to its "Casinò de la Vallée" one of the bigger and more known European gambling houses. Softly set on a hill in a pleasant valley sheltered from the winds, Saint-Vincent boasts archeological rests from Pre-Roman times. Its thermal resort could raise to a certain importance also thanks to its good climate that gave the village the name of "Alps Riviera".

We close our short itinerary in Issogne, characterized by the imposant presence of the famous XV century castle which raised on the area where had grown a villa of the Roman Imperial times. The Issogne castle, which belonged to the noble Challant family, is one of the most sumptuous of the Vallée in spite of the massive quadrilateral structure with angolar towers and the cross-windows. It is enough to enter the inside court to notice that it is a veritable "show of aulic luxury": here there is the valuable "Pomegranate fountain" a work in wrought iron presenting prized details. You should not lose the Justice Hall, the chapel and the Hall of the King of France, with a big fire-place and the caisson ceiling.

Vacanze in Val d'Aosta: la valle dei castelli e le montagne più alte d'Europa

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