Heritage: Pontboset

An original architecture, linked to the impervious land

In a rocky and sloping valley like Champorcher, crossing the river banks was not an easy task. Placing the bridge foundations on top of rocky gulfs, over turbulent waters, the master builders of the XVII and XVIII centuries created masterpieces, that still today stand and resist the impressive floods.

Only 6 km from the central vallley, at the chieftown of Pontboset, a path joins different winding mule-back bridges on the Rathus river; these bridges lead to the sunny hillside where there are numerous abandoned villages.

These houses, attached to the slopes, are characterized by their “soulei”, high haylofts closed by vertical walls bound by pillars on the corners. Small two-storey stone homes, built beside each other, were used as drying rooms for chestnuts and remind us that, in 1000 meters in altitude, these populations existed thanks to this nutritious fruit.

Higher up the culture of grains takes on heroic aspects. The rye fields of long ago, overhanging one on top of the other, thanks to the layout of the hillside, characterize this landscape and were entirely built by man.
In the villages, like Outre l’Eve, numerous grain barns show the expert skills of the carpenters of this mountain valley, which is worth discovering.
The ethnographic hemp museum at Chardonney was built under an old XVIII century barn, furnishing an inhabited stable, much like the one of Champorcher in the winter. The inhabitants were specialized in the weaving of hemp and this precious material was carried from all over Valle d’Aosta. It was a primary material in the daily lives of the people and they used it to make underwear, drapes and sheets.

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The name of the town, Pontboset, evokes its main characteristic:the presence of many bridges.
In fact, starting from the Chief Town you can cross six of them with a pleasant walk:amongst the many bridges the ones that are particularly beautiful are the one shaped like a donkey’s back on the Ayasse (bridge of Bozet) that gives access to the mule paths for the villages of Piolly and Fourneir, the beautiful three arched stone bridge that gives access to Envers and the one of Vaseras on the Manda river.

Furthermore in 1878 a beautiful stone bridge was built between the villages of Savin and Fassiney. It was built to replace the previous wooden one, that resisted all the floods of that time.

The current Gom chapel, which dates back to the third decade of the 18th century, was rebuilt on the remains of a previous, much smaller building, with a south facing entrance. The splendid baroque altar is most likely the work of one of the many Valsesian artists active within the eighteenth century in Valle d’Aosta, Francesco Antoni d’Alberto. On the facade of the chapel there is a gracious and unusual ornamental motif.

The original church was built between 1622 and 1624, therefore shortly before the foundation of the parish (1625), but it was then rebuilt in 1843-44, working on the plans and under the management of the architect Pacifique Dallou of Donnas. In 1910, the internal walls were frescoed by the painters Stornone, Sardi and Carretti.
The altar dates back to the nineteenth century, but contains statues from 1706, by Serra, a maestro from Biella. The triumphal crucifix is said to date back to 1625. In the square in front of the church there is a beautiful stone fountain, built in 1830 by the stone cutter Peraldo of Biella.

The Retempio Sanctuary, which dates back to 1835, comprises a chapel dedicated to Nostra Signora della Visitazione and San Rocco. Inside is a gilded wooden statue of the Madonna and two polychrome statues of Sant’Andrea and San Bartolomeo. The sanctuary is named after the nearby summer mountain pasture of Tempioz. From the sanctuary, which is the destination of a pilgrimage tradition held on 2nd July, there is a beautiful view of Mount Rosa and Matterhorn.