Heritage: Verrès

It is a huge building once used as a barn with stables. It also has a pigeon coop and is surrounded by an embattled wall.An inscription on the tower wall reminds us of the year it was built, in 1512, by the parish priest, Carlo of Challant.It was the stables of the Challant family.Today it belongs to the Regional Offices and holds exhibit rooms, district library and offices of the Mountain Bureau.

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An inscription carved in Gothic characters states that Ibleto of Challant began works in 1390. In 1536 Renato of Challant renovated the defence structures, adapting them for modern fire arms. On this occasion, a boundary wall with a battery, buttresses and five-sided attack towers, suitable for use with the canon and springalds cast in the Count of Challant’s fiefdom in Valangin, Switzerland. Further protection was given to the entrance with the addition of an inner gate, a drawbridge and loopholes. New cross windows were created in addition to the existing single-light and mullioned Gothic windows, and new gates with Spanish-inspired Moorish arches. The interiors were enhanced with new furnishings. Renato of Challant died leaving no male heirs in 1565, which is when the castle was taken over by the Savoys. In 1661 Duke Charles Emmanuel II ordered the dismantling of weapons and their transfer to the fortress in Bard, a strategic point in which the defence of Val d’Aosta was concentrated.
The Challant regained possession of the castle in 1696 and kept it until the end of the family line at the start of the 19th century. At that time the castle had been abandoned for almost two centuries: the roof, which was already in partial collapse, was demolished completely to avoid paying duty on the structure, and so the upper floors were exposed to the elements. Like the castles of Issogne and Fénis, this castle was rescued by a group of Piedmont intellectuals with a common love for the Middle Ages.

After going through the outer door which opens in the fortified wall, also accessible on horseback across the drawbridge, you come to the guard’s building opposite the castle entrance. The portal leads onto a hallway with a protective machicolation disguised within the vault. A second door, formerly protected by a portcullis, provides access to the castle courtyard. Surrounding this square space, the body of the building is arranged in a ring on three floors, connected via a monumental stone staircase set on rampant arches. The regular geometrical structure and simplicity of the green and white stone decoration, are consistent with military character of the building and are also evidence of the excellent craftsmanship in Verrès.
On the ground floor, two large symmetrical halls occupy the entire east and west wings of the castle, while the kitchen is located in the south. The east barrel-vaulted hall was probably used as a weaponry. The groin-vaulted weapons room in the west wing is of far greater interest, presenting two monumental fireplaces with moulded jambs. Double masonry and other clues found during recent restoration work, indicate that the building probably underwent several construction phases.
The first-floor rooms, used by the lords of the castle are illuminated by elegant 13th-century mullioned windows, which are larger than those on other floors. The large dining hall is connected to the master kitchen via a serving hatch. The kitchen has three large fireplaces and multiple ribbed vault reconstructed during the time of Renato of Challant, the only original ceiling in the castle. Another feature that is worthy of attention is the extraordinarily large north fireplace that is richly decorated with moulding and small pillars.
On the second floor (not open to visitors) are the servants’ quarters, connected to the machicolation floor via a wooden staircase.

Each year the castle is the prestigious backdrop for the Historic Carnival of Verrès, with the re-enactment of the epic of Countess Caterina of Challant.

SANTI BARBARA E GIACOMO CHAPEL - located in the Torille district. The current building dates back to the second half of the XIX century. It has changed location from the chapel established by Giacomo Peaquin in 1647 and then destroyed in a flood. St. Barbara’s feast day is celebrated on the 4th of December. Inside, you can observe particularly interesting, sacred furnishings.

ADDOLORATA CHAPEL - located near the start of the regional road for Val d’Ayas, dating back to the end of the seventeenth century. In 1980 it was deconsecrated and purchased by the Municipality, which turned it into IAT (tourist) offices and an exhibition centre.

SAN GRATO CHAPEL - located in the village of Rovarey, just above Verrès. It was rebuilt in 1760 and its facade has a fresco depicting St. John the Baptist and the Deposition.

SAN ROCCO CHAPEL - founded in 1681, it was situated on the edge of the old village of Verrès, in the direction of Ivrea; the patron saint’s day is celebrated on the 6th of August, including a food and wine tasting evening on the town centre streets.

MADONNA DELLE GRAZIE CHAPEL - located in Via Martorey and appears to be the oldest in Verrès, being established in 1613. On the 28th of August, St. Augustan’s, the feast day of the chapel, food and wine produce are offered called the “The good things in Martorey”.

Tradition dates the foundation of the monastery to the X century, however the canonicals of St. Egidio are mentioned for the first time in 1050. It was the location of the parish church, which includes buildings dating from the XI and XVIII centuries. The main building, in visible stone, and the adjacent, main bell-tower were build in 1512 by the Provost Charles of Challant.

The current parish church of Sant’Egidio was instead built in 1775 on the site where the previous, Romanesque church lay. Only a simple, little belfry remains today. In 1775 Count Francesco Ottavio of Challant allowed the structures of the pre-existing church to be merged with the Chapel of Saints George and Maurice, built in 1407 by the knight Ibleto of Challant as his family’s burial chapel. The structures in this chapel are still easily identified today, from outside due to the magnificent mullioned window in worked stone that stands out on the wall facing towards the village and inside due to its gothic, ribbed vaults which were saved from eighteenth-century intervention.

On May 25, 1800, the convent of Verrès hosted Napoleon for the night as he and his troops descended from the Gran San Bernardo and crossed the Aosta Valley, starting his second Italian campaign.

Since December 2015, pilgrims who walk the Via Francigena can find accommodation in the guesthouse called “La Casa del Pellegrino”.

Questo gruppo storico è un gruppo di ricerca, studio e valorizzazione dei costumi rinascimentali Valdostani. E’ nato anche per far conoscere la storia dell’illustre famiglia degli Challant. Questo gruppo propone il periodo in pieno rinascimento dal 1478 al 1570, poichè questo periodo storico è particolarmente ricco di splendore artistico.
I personaggi di questo gruppo sono:
- Il ConteRenato e la Contessa Donna Mencia di Braganza e Portogallo
- una coppia di nobili
- Dame
- Uomini d’arme
- Gran cerimoniere
- Alfiere
- Tamburini
- Chiarine
- Vessillifero

Il coro di Verrès è un gruppo corale maschile di canto a cappella che ha festeggiato i suoi sessant’anni d’attività nel dicembre 2011.
Diretto per ben 47 anni dal maestro Giuseppe Cerruti, dal 1998 il coro è sotto la direzione di Albert Lanièce.
Numerose sono le partecipazioni a concorsi ed a concerti sul territorio nazionale; importanti rassegne di carattere internazionale portano inoltre il coro a prestigiose trasferte in Francia, Austria, Svizzera, Germania, Slovenia e Cecoslovacchia.
Indimenticabile è stata la trasferta in Brasile, nel novembre del 1994.

When Grato was bishop of Aosta, paganism was till widespread in many areas of the Valley. At Verrès the inhabitants worshipped and prayed to the God Mars, building a temple dedicated to him. The saint, having heard about this, quickly went to the idolizing village, where he found the crowd gathered around the deity’s simulacrum. Grato invoked divine intervention. The earth began to shake with a tremendous rumble and the statue of Mars broke, falling at the saint’s feet. The bystanders, shocked at this miracle, joined the bishop to invoke God’s protection. Much later, the inhabitants of Verrès, in memory of this miraculous event that converted them into Christianity, wanted to dedicate a statue of the patron saint of Valle d’Aosta and placed it in the tower of the bell-tower. But they continued to call the road where the temple of the god of war once stood “via Martorey”.

Si svolge in febbraio, tra sabato e martedì grasso. Consiste nella rievocazione di un fatto accaduto nel lontano 1449, che ha come protagonisti Caterina di Challant, signora del Contado, ed il popolo di Verrès. Scenario delle varie manifestazioni è lo splendido castello di Verrès.