Chamois is a scattered Italian municipality of 111 inhabitants in the Valtournenche, a side valley of the Aosta Valley.
The parish church, in Liussel, is dedicated to San Pantaleone and has
been rebuilt several times: the current one dates back to 1838. The high
altar, coming from the parish of Torgnon, is in carved, painted and
partly gilded wood. It houses a canvas of the Immaculate Conception. The
parish feast is celebrated on the last Sunday of July.
Above the
built-up area of Corgnolaz, at an altitude of 2000 metres, lies Lake
Lod, in the hamlet of the same name, which can also be reached by
chairlift.
The altiport, located in the hamlet of Suisse, built in
1967 is considered the first altiport in Italy and consists of a grassy
runway sloping towards the valley floor, equipped with a windsock and a
small wooden service building. It is open to small propeller planes and
occasionally to emergency services helicopters, in case the sports field
located in the capital is unusable. The airstrip is 360 meters long and
30 meters wide.
The sanctuary of San Domenico Savio, on the Col
Clavalité, at 2535 m a.s.l. near the border with the municipality of
Valtournenche. Every year on the first Sunday of August it is the
destination of a joint pilgrimage of the inhabitants of the two
municipalities.
It is a municipality that cannot be reached by car, but only on foot
(via a mule track, "les Seingles" from Buisson) or by bicycle, along the
farm road from La Magdeleine, the circulation of off-road vehicles is
prohibited in the municipal area, or with small airplanes.
By
cable car
Chamois-Buisson cable car, ☎ +39 0166 550106-+39 0166
47136.
Artisans' atelier in the square, ☎ +39 0166 47134. 9/7 from 9 to 18
The territory of Chamois is located in the middle Valtournenche. It includes almost the entire valley of the stream of the same name and of the Saverou (or Soverou), tributaries of the Marmore stream, and the plateau of Rû de la Cleyva-Bella. The peaks of the mountains included in its territory exceed 2,500 metres, and the highest point of the municipality is Becca Trecare (3,033 m). Chamois borders to the north with the municipality of Valtournenche, to the west with that of Antey-Saint-André, to the south with that of La Magdeleine and to the east with that of Ayas.
Seismic classification: zone 4 (very low seismicity)
Given the altitude, Chamois has a typically alpine climate. Winters are cold and rainfall is exclusively snow. The southern exposure helps to slightly mitigate the winter days. Summers are cool and with frequent thunderstorms.
The toponym Chamois corresponds to the French word chamois, which
means chamois.
In the Fascist era, the toponym was Italianized in
Camosio, from 1939 to 1946.
There is no evidence that the Chamois area was inhabited in Roman or pre-Roman times. It is believed that the first settlers settled in the area around the late Middle Ages, when the progressive demographic expansion that followed the year 1000 caused the clearing and population of large areas, previously disabled or only used seasonally for transhumance.
Libraries
In the village of Corgnolaz nº 5 there is the municipal
library, which currently has about 3000 volumes in Italian and French.
There are also three workstations with Internet connection.
Documentaries shot in Chamois
2012: La Suisse d'Emilio by Joseph
Péaquin, on the life of Emilio Lettry, the last inhabitant of the Suisse
village.
Tourism
One of the resources that Chamois enjoys is tourism,
especially in winter, which employs about half of the currently resident
population. In fact, there are some ski lifts[18][19] that allow you to
ski in winter on about 14 kilometers of slopes, and in summer to go for
many walks.
Skilifts
At the 2010-2011 season, excluding the
cable car and cable car that reach the town, the lifts are:
2 Carpets
for starters
Two-seater chairlift Corgnolaz-Lago Lod
Two-seater
chairlift Lake Lod-Teppa
Falinère two-seater chairlift
Crafts
Important and typical is the woodworking aimed at making various
objects, such as statuettes, sabots and hazel wood baskets.