Location: Challand-Saint-Anselme, Aosta Valley Map
Constructed: 14th century
The castle of Verrès is one of the most famous medieval castles
in the Aosta Valley. Built as a military fortress by Ibleto di
Challant in the 14th century, it was one of the first examples of a
monobloc castle, i.e. consisting of a single building unlike the
older manors formed by a series of buildings enclosed by a wall.
It stands on a rocky promontory which dominates the town of
Verrès and the Val d'Ayas road, on the opposite side of the Dora
Baltea with respect to the castle of Issogne, and externally it
appears as an austere cube of thirty meters on each side,
practically devoid of decorative elements.
The first documents attesting the existence of a castle in Verrès,
owned by the De Verretio family, date back to 1287. At the time, control
of the area was disputed between the bishop of Aosta and some noble
families, feudal lords of the Counts of Savoy: the De Turrilia, the De
Arnados and the De Verretios. The latter in particular had, over the
years, bitter disagreements with the prelate, which culminated with the
assault on the episcopal stronghold of Issogne in 1333.
Towards
the middle of the fourteenth century the De Verretios died out without
leaving possible heirs: in this way their lands returned to the hands of
the counts of Savoy, who granted them in 1372 to Ibleto di Challant,
having distinguished himself in covering various positions at their
service.
Ibleto completely rebuilt the castle, creating a
practically impregnable military fortress and different from most of the
coeval Aosta Valley castles, which consisted of a set of buildings
enclosed by a wall.
An inscription in Latin on the architrave of
the first door, which you meet going up from the ground floor, recalls
how Ibleto's works ended in 1390:
«MCCCLXXXX Magnific(us)
D(omi)nus Eball(us) D(omi)nus Challandi Montioveti, etc. edificare fecit
hoc castrum viventibus egregiis viris Francisco de Challand D(omi)nus de
Bossonens et Castellionis et Joh(ann)e de Challand D(omi)no de Cossona
ei(us) filiis.»
"In 1390 the magnificent lord Ebalo, lord of
Challant, Montjovet etc., had this castle built when the distinguished
lords Francis of Challant, lord of Bossonens and Châtillon, and John of
Challant, lord of Cossonay, his sons, were alive"
Upon Ibleto's death in 1409, the castle and his other assets passed
to his son Francesco, who on 15 August 1424 received the title of first
count of Challant from the Savoys. Verrès remained one of his most
important fiefdoms, but he did not substantially change the appearance
of the castle.
Francesco died in 1442 without male heirs and left
his possessions to his daughters Margherita and Caterina. The castle of
Verrès thus found itself at the center of an inheritance dispute between
Caterina, who, brandishing her father's will, claimed it for herself,
and some male cousins including Giacomo di Challant Aymavilles, who
contested the inheritance on the basis of the Salic law , which did not
allow female succession.
The fortress of Verrès thus became one
of the strongholds of Caterina and her husband Pietro Sarriod d'Introd
during her fight with Giacomo. According to tradition, the day of the
SS. Trinity of 1449 Caterina and Pietro left the castle and went down to
the town square, where they danced with the young people of the village.
This episode greatly increased the support of the inhabitants for
Caterina and is commemorated every year in the historical carnival of
Verrès.
In 1456, when her husband died in an ambush, Caterina had
to surrender and her possessions, including the fief and the castle of
Verrès, passed to her cousin Giacomo di Challant Aymavilles, who thus
became the second count of Challant.
The sixteenth-century
fortress
The castle then followed the fortunes of Giacomo's
descendants, passing first to his son Luigi, then to his nephew
Filiberto and then to the latter's son Renato di Challant, who, however,
used the nearby and more comfortable castle of Issogne as their
residence.
Since its construction by Ibleto, about one hundred
and fifty years earlier, the castle had not undergone any particular
modification or maintenance work. In 1536 Renato, with the help of the
Spanish captain Pietro de Valle, a famous military architect, enlarged
the fortress, adapting it to the firearms of the time. He thus had a
wall built at the base of the cubic building equipped with buttresses
and polygonal turrets, suitable for the use of cannons, which he
equipped with artillery pieces from his fiefdom of Valangin in
Switzerland. Renato also owes the current frontispiece accessible via a
drawbridge, new sixteenth-century cross windows and new Moorish arched
doors.
The works are commemorated by a stone plaque located above
the entrance to the frontispiece, flanked by the coats of arms of Renato
di Challant (on the left of the text) and his second wife Mencia di
Braganza (on the right of the text):
Arcem per excellentissimum ebailum de challant editam illustris
renatus challandi comes de baufremont viriaci magni ama ville et
collogniaci baro. castellionis S. marcelli yssognie valangini montisalti
grane verrecii usselli etc. dominus ordinis miles ac marescallus
sabaudie. intus decorauit forasque structuris bellicis (muniu)it. anno
Xpi. 1536
A castle issued by the most excellent ébail de challant
to the illustrious reborn count of challan de Baufremont, viriac of the
great ama ville and baron of Collognia. castellionis S. marcelli
yssognie valangini montisalti grane verrecii usselli etc. lord of the
order, soldier and marshal of Savoy. he decorated the inside and the
outside with military structures (fortified). in the year Xpi 1536
Upon the death of Renato di Challant, without male heirs, in 1565,
his assets passed to his son-in-law Giovanni Federico Madruzzo, husband
of his daughter Isabella, but a long legal dispute arose with other male
relatives of the Challant family, again due to the Salic law, that he
did not foresee Isabella being able to inherit her father's assets.
The Savoy then regained direct control over the castle of Verrès,
using it as a lookout and military garrison, but in 1661 the Duke of
Savoy Carlo Emanuele II had the castle's armaments dismantled to
transfer them, together with those of the castle of Montjovet, to the
fort of Bard , in a more strategic position for the control of the
Valley, and the castle was abandoned.
In 1696 the legal disputes
between the heirs of Isabella di Challant and Giovanni Federico Madruzzo
and the Challant family finally ended, and the castle returned to the
property of the latter. The castle remained the property of the Challant
family until the extinction of the lineage in the 19th century, but was
no longer inhabited and fell into ruin. The sturdy external masonry
resisted well but the wooden roof was demolished in order not to pay the
tax fee, leaving the upper floors exposed to the elements.
After
a series of changes of ownership it was finally purchased on behalf of
the Italian State in 1894 by Alfredo d'Andrade, then superintendent of
the monuments of Piedmont and Liguria, who oversaw an initial
restoration. After the Second World War the castle, declared a national
monument, passed to the Valle d'Aosta Region, which in the 1980s rebuilt
the stone slab roof. A further restoration took place in 1994.
In
2004 the castle was closed to allow for the adaptation and upgrading of
the systems. Following the reopening in 2007, it can be visited on
guided tours.
The castle, built to be a military fortress, stands on a rocky
promontory overlooking the Evançon stream which dominates the town of
Verrès. In addition to being difficult to access and easily defensible,
its position allowed it to control the town below, the central valley
and the road that climbs along the Val d'Ayas, an important
communication route at the time. In the 18th century, the Valle d'Aosta
historian Jean-Baptiste de Tillier in his Historique de la Vallée
d'Aoste described the castle of Verrès as «Et l'on peut dire sans
exagération que c'est un des plus solides et plus fameux batiments qu'un
vassal ait pu faire construire dans le domaine d'un prince souverain où
celluy-cy tient le rang d'un des plus renommés», calling it one of the
most solid and most famous buildings that a vassal could have built in
the domain of a sovereign prince.
Externally it looks like an
austere cubic block of 30 meters on each side, surrounded at the base by
a wall that encloses the entire top of the rock peak. The walls, more
than 2.5 meters thick, are surmounted by a continuous row of corbels,
which hide a machicolation, and on them there are medieval mullioned
windows and Renaissance cross windows.
Every element of the castle seems to have been designed to make the
fortress more defensible. It is accessed on foot via a mule track that
climbs along the mountain until you reach the entrance to the city wall,
which was once accessible via a drawbridge. This entrance, as well as
the external walls, were built by Renato di Challant in the 16th
century, as indicated in the inscription above the entrance door.
Those who follow the path to go up to the castle always offer the
right flank to the fortress. This was a further precaution for defence,
since the soldiers of the time used to carry the shield in the left hand
and therefore the right was the most exposed side.
After passing
the door you find yourself in a front door, uphill and in a curve to
make the possible use of a ram difficult. On this space opens the door
that leads to the internal park and the ramparts, once occupied by the
stables, not accessible to visitors.
After passing the front
door, you reach the guardhouse, under which the prisons were located,
used as a ticket office for visits to the manor. Opposite is the actual
entrance to the castle, closed by a wooden portal, a reconstruction of
the original one, reinforced by iron nails and enclosed by a double
round and pointed arch.
Entering the castle you find yourself in a square hall covered by a
pointed arch vault, a further element of defense of the castle. In fact,
several loopholes and a trap door on the ceiling open on it, from which
it would have been possible to target any invaders trapped inside.
To truly enter the central body of the manor, you still have to go
through a double portal surmounted by a round arch on the side towards
the entrance hall and by a pointed arch on the side facing the internal
courtyard, once protected by a gate that flowed between the two portals.
The internal courtyard of the castle is simply a square space which
leads to the two large halls, located on the eastern and western sides
of the manor. The opening of the roof in correspondence with the
courtyard allowed better lighting of the rooms and the collection of
rainwater in the large cistern located underneath it. The same floor of
the courtyard was built on a slope so as to convey all the water towards
its centre, where the opening of the cistern is located, in order to
have a reserve of water, precious in case of siege.
The internal
division of the castle is as simple and essential as its external
appearance. The ground floor, as well as the entrance hall, is made up
of three rooms which surround the internal courtyard.
The entire
eastern side of the castle is occupied by a large rectangular room
covered by a round barrel vault. This was the only unheated hall in the
castle and was probably used as a storeroom and armoury. It is used as a
ballroom during the historical carnival celebrations.
On the
opposite side is the large western hall, accessible via a portal and
covered by a vault, both with pointed arches. This hall, probably used
as lodgings and dining room for soldiers and service personnel, was
heated by two monumental fireplaces and connected via a serving hatch to
the kitchen located on the south side of the ground floor and, via a
staircase, to the kitchen northwest of the upper floor.
From this
hall there is also a loophole that points to the entrance hall. In some
points the rock emerges here: the castle is in fact founded on the bare
rock and it would have been impossible to remove the outcrops without
compromising its stability.
«A giant staircase attacks the walls from the courtyard, surrounds
them halfway up with large shelves and from these it pushes up again to
wrap them once again all around. It is a castle of arches, all granite,
which stand out one from the other with the quickness of an
eighteen-year-old Hercules.»
(Joseph Giacosa)
The first floor
was reserved for the lords of the manor. It is accessed by climbing the
monumental staircase with flying buttresses about two meters wide which,
starting from the internal courtyard, climbs along the internal walls of
the building.
The architrave of the first door that you meet
going up the staircase bears the engraving which recalls Ibleto di
Challant as builder of the castle in 1390. The door leads into a room
used as a guardhouse, which is located above the entrance hall of
entrance. On the floor of the room is the trapdoor from which it was
possible to target the enemies below. The room is lit on the north side
by a window from which it is possible to see the castle of Villa a
Challand-Saint-Victor.
This room leads to the second kitchen of
the garrison, once connected to the hall on the ground floor by a
staircase. Like the rooms below and above, the room is provided with a
small door that opens onto the void in the northern wall of the castle,
perhaps a sort of emergency exit. The room also includes a wall pantry,
with a hole for better storing food, thanks to the cold outside, and a
fireplace on the wall that borders the noble dining room, with the dual
function of cooking food and heating the room adjacent.
The
kitchen leads to what used to be the master dining room, also accessible
from the grand staircase, which occupies the rest of the western side of
the floor. The room was heated by two large braziers placed in its
corners and was connected by a serving hatch to the kitchen on the south
side of the castle. The room is illuminated by Gothic mullioned windows
that overlook the outside and a fourteenth-century quadrifora that opens
onto the internal courtyard.
The master kitchen, located on the
southern side of the floor, is equipped with three large fireplaces, of
which the one on the side towards the staircase is of exceptional size
and originally intended for cooking whole animals. The room is covered
by a vault with multiple ribs dating back to the times of Renato di
Challant and which shows his coat of arms in the center together with
the letters R and M, initials of Renato and his wife Mencia, the only
original covering of the castle, unlike the others , redone during the
restoration of the twentieth century. The eastern side of the kitchen is
occupied by some built-in wardrobes and a large pantry created in the
cavity of the wall.
The eastern side of the castle is occupied by
what used to be the lords' bedrooms, heated by large stone fireplaces
and covered by wooden coffered ceilings, and equipped with a total of
five wall latrines which discharged towards the outside onto the rocks
below .
The second floor of the manor, which can be visited during guided
tours, mirrors the division of the first floor and was probably used by
officials and guests of the castle. Above the master dining room is a
hall, probably once used as a council chamber. The wooden ceiling and
stone fireplace of this room, as well as those of the other rooms on the
floor, have been rebuilt and restored in recent decades. They had in
fact deteriorated due to the bad weather to which they had been exposed
following the demolition of the roof of the manor. The rooms on the
eastern side had two wall latrines similar to those on the first floor.
The room above the kitchen in the northwest corner has, like the room
below, a small door overlooking the outside, perhaps used as a service
exit or perhaps for signalling.
A completely reconstructed wooden
staircase connects this floor to the attic. The subdivision of the rooms
is the same as that of the floors below and it was probably used by the
armigers and the service personnel of the castle, as well as as a stone
deposit. From the attic it is possible to access, towards the outside,
the patrol path which runs along the four sides of the building for a
length of about 120 meters and which had 148 machicolations, and towards
the inside to a wooden gallery which overlooks the internal courtyard
and whose roof served as a valley for rainwater. The stone roof was
completely rebuilt in the eighties.
The castle of Verrès is one of the most visited monuments in the
Valle d'Aosta and in the three-year period 2007-2009 it counted around
20,000 visitors each year.
In 1884 the manor was used by Alfredo
d'Andrade as one of the models for the Rocca del Borgo Medievale in
Turin, built on the occasion of the Italian General Artistic and
Industrial Exposition of that year.
Starting from 1949, every
year in Verrès, on the occasion of the carnival, the episode is recalled
during which, on 31 May 1449, Caterina di Challant and her husband
Pietro d'Introd descended on the town square and began to dance with the
inhabitants of the village. During the four days of the carnival, the
castle hosts dinners and masquerade balls and the representation of the
opera "A game of chess" by Giuseppe Giacosa.