Heritage: Issogne

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History

Formerly property of the Bishops of Aosta, then restored in the 15th century by Ibleto of Challant, Issogne Castle’s current appearance developed between 1490 and 1510 under George of Challant, the prior of Sant’ Orso, who restored and transformed it into a luxurious residence for his cousin Margaret de La Chambre and her son Philibert. These works transformed Issogne castle into a luxurious Renaissance residence. After various owners, it was bought by the artist Vittorio Avondo in 1872 who restored it and donated it to the State in 1907. Today the castle belongs to the autonomous Region of Aosta Valley. Not far from the castle are the ruins of its dove house.

The visit

Entering the castle, the courtyard offers its walls, painted with the coats of arms of the Challant family and of the dinasties related to them. In the centre of the courtyard is the famous wrought-iron pomegranate fountain, symbol of the Challant family.
Then comes the hall frescoed with the famous “lunettes”, scenes from everyday life (the guards, the butcher and the baker, the greengrocer market, the tailor’s workshop, the pharmacy and the grocer).

The visit of the apartments of the castle includes:
- on the ground-floor, the dining room, the kitchen and the Baron’s hall, where you can admire a beautiful stone fireplace with the Challant crest alongside a lion and a griffin, painted wooden beams on the ceiling and frescoes on the walls depicting landscapes, hunting scenes and the Judgment of Paris;
- on the first floor, the chapel with finely decorated, pointed arch vaults, frescoes on the walls and a Gothic altar in carved, gilded wood in a Flemish triptych,and the Countess’s room with painted oratory;
- on the second floor, the “King of France’s room”, with a coffered ceiling decorated with lilies and a fireplace with the French Vallois dynasty shield, and the room called the “Knights of St. Maurice” with a beautiful, coffered ceiling with the Order’s cross painted on it.

Avondo’s apartment

Since 2018, an emotional and multimedia space dedicated to Vittorio Avondo, the illustrious owner of the Issogne manor, enhances and enriches the castle’s offer by highlighting its events of the late 19th century.
Born in Turin in 1836, passionate about painting from his youth, after a period lived in Rome to paint the landscapes of the countryside of the region, Avondo dedicated himself to the study of the art of antiquity and in 1865 he followed the reorganization of the Bargello Museum in Florence.
Then he returned to Turin where, from 1891, he became director of the Museo Civico.
The purchase and restoration, with Alfredo D’Andrade, of Issogne Castle, allowed him to expand his skills and collections of medieval art, which led him to collaborate with D’Andrade himself in the construction of the Medieval village in Turin (1884).

This chapel is situated near the bridge that links Issogne to Verrès and it was built by the count Renato of Challant who, as the representative of the House of Savoy in Chambéry, was the custodian of the Holy Shroud prior to its transferral to Turin. During the Easter period of the 16th century, it was the destination of a procession that departed from the chapel inside the castle.

During the Middle Ages the building was leaning up against the facade of the castle, but during a pastoral visit in 1528, the bishop, subject to an agreement with Renato di Challant, ordered that the church be built elsewhere. Two centuries passed before the works were actually started, and the new church saw the light in 1736. The bell tower of the older church became the corner tower of the castle.
The facade of the church is in a neo-classical style, with square columns up against the brick work and a triangular shaped tympanum in the upper section. The interior is decorated by modern frescoes owing to Luciano Bartoli (1972). At the bottom of the church there is a large bell dated 1389, among the oldest known in our region.

Saint-Solutor Chapel on an external wall has a series of hanging arches that allow us to date it back to the 12th century, the facade has frescoes attributed to the same painter of the church of San Martino of Arnad and which date back to 1427. The chapel is next to a very ancient cemetery.

Many years ago a farmer, digging a well in Bosset (located in Issogne), found a statue of the Madonna buried deep inside it. When he took it out of the hole, a spring gushed forth. The water was so abundant that it was enough to satisfy the town’s water needs, that up until that day was lacking. To thank the heavens for this gift the townspeople built a chapel in honor of the Madonna and placed her statue in it.