Heritage: Étroubles

The medieval villages of Etroubles and Saint-Rhemy are joined together on the Roman road that from the city of Aosta climbs up the mountainside of the Pennine Alps (Alpis Poenina), towards the Valais and northern Europe.

Like a “picket” on the path, the parish church’s belltower dominates these characteristic architectural complexes, village roads built following a main circulation axis, at the convergence of 2 rivers and in correspondence to the bridges.The secondary roads or axis reached the mills and forges.
The village homes show their beautiful facades which open onto great entrances, on the main road; the main doorways lead towards internal courtyards or towards long hallways, with indoor stairways that take to all the rooms of the great stone house that once had stables and haylofts.The date of construction and initials of the great builders are engraved on the architraves or forged onto wrought-iron gates.

In the past, these groups of homes had a so-called franchise that attributed the function of “marronniers” to the inhabitants (guides for the Great St. Bernard pass, in winter and in the summer) and were used as hospices, boundary walls, guarded by night watchmen and closed during the nights.

The Via Francigena, up until the Middle Ages the only connecting road between Italy and England, passes through Saint-Rhémy and Étroubles. In fact, it is the main road of these villages and was travelled on foot, horseback or mule in order to reach Rome from Gran San Bernardo Hill.

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Located in the hamlet of Vachéry, which gave its name to the family owning the tower, the building has a square floor plan with stone walls almost two metres thick, and openings and entrances featuring interesting architectural details.

The chapel of the village of Eternod Dessus, founded in 1653, is dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Barbara, celebrated respectively on 13 June and 4 December.

On the facade the frescoes depict St. Bernard, the Virgin Mary and St. Anselm.

Inside, the altar table, by Laurent and Jean Perrier (1653), represents Our Lady of Mount Carmel, St. Lawrence, St. Dominic, St. Stephen, St. Leonard, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Joseph and St. Nicholas.

Located in the historic centre of the town, at the end of the main street.
The church was mentioned as early as 1177 in a Papal Bull by Alexander III as a dependent of the rectorship of Gran San Bernardo, despite the fact the bishop gave it certain rights. Almost all the parish priests were canons of Gran San Bernardo up to 1752, when a Papal Bull by Benedict XIV assigned all the assets of that rectorship to the Order of St. Maurice. From then on the king, as the Grand Master of the Order of St. Maurice, nominated the parish priest to the town. In 1929, in an agreement between the State and Church, the parish of Étroubles finally fell under the jurisdiction of the bishop.

The early parish church was built in the same place as the current one, but faced in an East-West direction, with the altar to the east. Entry was through a door in the bell-tower, which is now separate from the church. Due to the reduced dimensions and its state of decline, it was demolished and replaced by the current church, built in 1814, with an altar placed to the north. The bell-tower was built in 1480 by Yolli de Vuetto, a master mason in Gressoney, who also built the bell-tower in Gignod between 1481 and 1485.

Inside the church some showcases preserve the works of the small but precious museum of sacred art.

Since 2005, the Mediaeval village of Etroubles has become an outdoor museum, a permanent art gallery exhibiting the works of world famous artists, thanks to a collaboration with the Fondation Gianadda di Martigny.

Among the Italian artists exhibiting are the painter and sculptor Salvatore Sebaste, one of the major representatives of the art of the Italian Mezzogiorno, Ferrara sculptors Alberto Gambale and Sergio Zanni, the Milanese painter, Carlo Brenna and the Florentine Andrea Granchi.
French artists include Albert Féraud, the most famous living French sculptor, Guido Magnone, and the painter Evelyne Otis Bacchi. The French section is enriched with a work of the late painter Norbert Verzotto, kindly donated by the family.
Swiss contributors include the famous Hans Erni and the sculptor Yves Dana. Lastly, the exhibition features Assaf Mekhtiev, native of Azerbaijan and resident in Aosta.
Opening and closing the exhibition are the Aosta Valley artists Giulio Schiavon, Siro Viérin, Chicco Margaroli, Franco Balan, Enrichetta Jorrioz and Roberto Priod.

In 2006 two works of the Isola d’Elba artist Italo Bolano have been introduced, while 2010 has seen the inauguration of the works of Michel Favre of Martigny and Chicco Margaroli of Aosta: these two works adorn the Emile Chanoux square, in the pedestrian area.

Opened on the 22nd of July 2011, the treasure museum of the Etroubles’ parish church is composed by five cases containing precious holy objects, some of them going back to the beginning of the 15th century.

In the three cases placed under the matroneum on the right side, among the goldsmith’s crafts, three chalices dating back to the first decades of the 15th century are worthy to see. One of them, in silver, has got under his foot, the trademark of an unknown goldsmith, whose hand is also recognizable in the chalice of the Courmayeur’s church, realized in 1410; the special shape of the foot and the adorned knot are typical of the sacred pot spread in the alpine zone, between the French Savoie, the Aosta Valley end the Swiss canton of Vaud. A processional cross of the beginning of the 15th century is clad with iron leaves covered by silver and gold and orned, at the end of his arms, by the representation of the Blessed Virgin, Saint John Evangelist, the mystic pelican and the evangelists. The reliquary of the middle 15th century is covered by iron leaves decorated with flowers, like the reliquary of the Holy Grato in the Aosta cathedral, finished in 1458.

Still admirable are the big processional cross covered by silver bounced leaves made by the silversmith of Turin Antonio Benedetto Caire dating back to the second quarter of the 18th century, and the chalice in smooth silver produced by Giovanni Damodé, a famous goldsmith who worked also for the Savoy’s family, and a radial monstrance.
The silver pyx, partially golden covered, embossed and fused, is an example of the Swiss-German production of the first middle of the 17th century.

Of particular importance under the historical point of vue is the chalice of the beginning of the 20th century, made of silver and covered with gold, used by Monsignor Nestor Adam in 1927 for the celebration of his first Mass in Etroubles, his place of birth, before he became bishop of Sion from 1952 to 1977.

In the right aisle, at the two sides of the Blessed Virgin’s altar, there are two painted wooden sculptures coming from the Vachery chapel, representing the Pietà and produced one in the 16th and the other in the 17th century.