Heritage: Arvier

The hamlet of Leverogne presents an interesting urban development of the medieval village, with several noteworthy buildings. The village bridge was an obligatory passage to cross the gorge on the stream and access the Valgrisenche and the Col du Mont, a privileged connection between the Aosta Valley and the Maurienne.
Leverogne was, therefore, a place of transit for pilgrims, traders and adventurers.

In 1368, with the specific aim of welcoming pilgrims, Pierre Socquier founded a hospice that offered a kitchen, a bedroom and a cellar.
Even today, on the facade of the ancient house, we can admire the fifteenth-century pictorial cycle of the "Works of Mercy" that were put into practice by offering a plate of soup and a bed to wayfarers.

Going up the course of the Dora di Valgrisenche stream, you can still find the remains of a Roman bridge.

Leverogne also preserves a painful memory of more recent history.
On September 13, 1944, a violent Nazi-Fascist reprisal tragically marked this place, causing the death of 13 innocent people and leading to the destruction of a significant part of the town of Leverogne, in addition to the almost total devastation of the villages of Rochefort and Chez-les-Garin. An event that remains etched in the collective memory, as a testimony to the sacrifice and resistance of a territory.

In the hamlet of Planaval, at the start of Valgrisenche, you will find the fortified manor house of Rodolfo d’Avise, built in 1312.
The building has a rectangular plan and has a series of loopholes visible from the road that goes up the valley.

La Mothe castle dominates the village from the top of the hill.

Unfortunately only the four-sided tower remains intact, while the ruins of the round tower and the perimeter wall are still visible.
The current appearance estimates construction of the castle between the end of the 12th and the start of the 13th century, with important modifications in the 15th century. It was first mentioned in 1287, when Aimone de Arverio paid feudal homage to the count of Savoy. According to the tradition mentioned by 18th-century historian Jean-Baptiste De Tillier, the Savoy nobleman Aimar de la Mothe came to Val d’Aosta towards the end of the 13th century and married the heiress of the noble De Arverio family, thus gaining possession of the castle, before restoring it and giving it his own name.

The castle was built in 1271 by Anselmo and Aimone D´Avise on a steep promontory over the orographic right bank of the Dora Valgrisenche, in a position dominating the entrance to the valley of the same name.
Today it is reduce to ruins, but preserves the cylindrical tower, crowned with beautiful swallowtail battlements. It is still possible to see the remains of the ancient castle and the boundary wall.
Access is only possible on foot, along the path that leaves from the village of Grand Haury, just above Arvier.

According to an oral tradition, which has not been supported by any documental evidence, the church of Arvier was once located within the district of Leverogne. The church was later built under the castle with the monumental bell tower which appears, from a stylistic point of view, to date back to the 13th century. The current building is the fruit of the baroque restoration of the church, which came about during the course of the second half of the 17th century and was consecrated in 1701. Around the mid 19th century, the dome and the two sacristies were built.

The parish museum of sacred art
Established inside the church, it holds statues of saints and holy objects.

The shrine of Rochefort, dedicated to Maria Ausiliatrice (Our Lady Help of Christians) was erected at the end of the nineteenth century on the headland where the castle of the Lords of Avise once stood, it was already in ruins at the end of the 18th century.