La Thuile (La Tchoueuille in Valdostano patois) is an Italian town of 825 inhabitants located in the La Thuile valley, a side valley of the Aosta Valley. The toponym La Thuile, also present in French and Swiss territory, in the neighboring regions, appears in various forms starting from 1040 as Thuilia, Tuelia, La Tueilli, Tuilla, Tullia and La Tuile. They would reflect the French word Tuile, meaning tile, or from the Latin surname Tullius.
The parish church dedicated to San Nicola, dating
back to the 12th century;
Mauritian hospice.
The strategic position of the valley is recalled by
the fortifications of Prince Thomas of the 17th century, in the Mont
du Parc area, along which the army of the House of Savoy arrested
the French troops on two occasions.
In the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries the Kingdom of Italy built fortifications and
trenches on the watershed that then served as a frontier and in
higher rear areas, the remains of which are still visible today. In
the locality of Mont du Parc, along the road to the San Carlo hill,
the complex of the entrenchments of Prince Thomas is worthy of note.
Fortifications at the Colle della Croce and the Belvedere and Chaz
Duraz mountains
Captain Sandrino shelter
The entrenchments of
Prince Tommaso were the second defensive line of Prince Tommaso,
which leads to the Nicolon Ridotta.
The first defensive line
consisting of the works of the Piccolo San Bernardo, including the
positions of Colle Traversette (the Freccia and the Ridotta Sarda)
In the Reclus valley are the remains of the nineteenth-century
Redoute Ruinée.
To remember the presence for centuries of the
stronghold or castle of the noble Châtelard (or du Châtelar), which
has long since disappeared, of which remains in the toponym of the
same name.
The ancient silver, anthracite and coal mines were exploited in particular by the Cogne di Aosta. To transport the material between 1929 and 1962 the La Thuile-Arpy railway was active, a mining line that allowed anthracite to be transported to the Arpy plain to be loaded on the cableway that transported it to the Morgex station.
La Thuile is the last Italian town on the road to the Piccolo San
Bernardo hill (SS26), a historic pass for the connections between
Italy and France.
On this pass (at 2 188 m a.s.l.) there are in
fact signs of the presence of the Salassi, a pre-Roman population of
Celtic origin, who have left the Cromlech of the Piccolo San
Bernardo.
Even more numerous are the constructions of the
Roman period: eastern and western mansio, Gallo-Roman fanum,
courtyard building (perhaps a sanctuary), column of Jupiter (Columna
Iovis in Latin, Colonne de Joux in French). In this period the hill
was called Alpis Graia.
In the Middle Ages the column of
Jupiter (4.5 m high) gave its name to the hill, in fact called Mons
Minoris Iovis. The hospice of the Piccolo San Bernardo itself, built
thanks to the encouragement of the monks of Bernardo d'Aosta after
the ruin of the Roman mansio, was called Hospitale Columnæ Iovis.
In French territory, the Chanousia Alpine Botanical Garden is
noteworthy, founded in 1897 by the Aosta Valley abbot Pierre Chanoux
Verney Lake;
Rutor glacier;
The high altitude environments
of the Thuilette and Sozin combas are a site of community interest.
The municipal library is located in via Paolo Debernard 11.
Maison-musée Berton, in the village of Entrèves, a museum of Aosta
Valley crafts, dedicated to the memory and work of brothers Robert and
Louis Berton;
"The Silver Mine";
Parish museum.
In summer, the Fête des bergers (Shepherds' Festival) at the Little
Saint Bernard pass, organized with the municipalities of the Savoyard
side (Séez, Bourg-Saint-Maurice, etc.);
La Pass' Pitchü, celebration
of the reopening of the Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo after the winter
closure, organized in turn by La Thuile and the municipality of Séez.
Territory
It is the second westernmost municipality in the Aosta
Valley. The first is Courmayeur (6°48'03''), while La Thuile culminates
at 6°57'00''.
The municipality occupies the upper part of the
homonymous valley; it is located on the border with France, to which it
is connected with the Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo. It can also be
accessed through Colle San Carlo. In La Thuile, the Doire du Rutor flows
into the Dora di Verney, a tributary of the Dora Baltea.
Seismic
classification: zone 3 (low seismicity)
Lakes
Lac du Verney (2 089
m)
Lac du Verney dessus (2 293 m)
Lac du Tormotta (2 486 m)
Lacs de la Bellecombe (2 347-2 400 m)
Vallon des Ponteilles lakes (2
551-2 660 m)
Lac du vallon des Orgères (2 382 m)
Lacs du glacier
d'Arguerey (2 438-2 678-2 725 m)
Breuil glacier lakes (2 637-2 740 m)
Lacs du glacier des Chavannes (2 631-2 698-2 714 m)
Lac du Rutor (2
423 m)
Lac des Saracs (2 388 m)
Lake Glacial Marginal (2 503 m)
Lacs Neufs (2 552 m)
Lac Gris (2 532 m)
Lake Vert (2 535 m)
The toponym La Thuile, also present in French and Swiss territory, in the neighboring regions, appears in various forms starting from 1040 such as Thuilia, Tuelia, La Tueilli, Tuilla, Tullia and La Tuile. They would reflect the French word Tuile, i.e. tile, or from the Latin cognomen Tullius.
The presence of Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo has
made human presence certain since ancient times: in Roman times the
town had the name Ariolica, while in medieval times it bore the name
of Thuilia. The current toponym appears in 1760, replaced only in
the Fascist period by the name Porta Littoria. From La Thuile, in
Roman times, the Via delle Gallie passed, a Roman consular road
built by Augustus to connect the Po Valley with Gaul.
It was
among the first dominions of the House of Savoy, together with the
Tarentaise and the Maurienne, in the 10th century. La Thuile played
a strategic military role between the eighteenth and the first half
of the twentieth century, being the Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo
guarding the passage between Tarentaise and the Duchy of Aosta, and
therefore important in the conflicts between the Kingdom of France
and the Kingdom of Sardinia (War of the Great Alliance, War of the
Spanish Succession, War of the Austrian Succession, Italian Campaign
of the French Revolution). La Thuile was then occupied by French
troops in 1704 and then again in 1794.
In the twentieth
century it saw regular army fighting against France when, on June
10, 1940, fascist Italy declared war on it. This Italian attack on
France already won by the Germans was called a coup de poignard dans
le dos (a stab in the back). After 8 September 1943 there were
fights of the Italian and French partisans (maquis) against the
occupation troops of Nazi Germany. The center was also the
protagonist of an episode that occurred during the French invasion
of Italy, where partisan troops of the Green Flames and soldiers of
the Italian Social Republic belonging to the Monterosa Alpine
Division stopped the French troops in an unusual alliance until the
arrival of the troops Americans, who ordered the troops of General
Paul-André Doyen to withdraw, which was accepted by the French only
in May 1945.
In the Fascist era, the toponym was Italianized
in Porta Littoria, from 1939 to 1946. In 1964 the General Society of
Swiss Industry started the creation of the "Valrutor" ski resort in
La Thuile in the research and development sector. Jean de Senarclens
follows the first plant project which will not be supported by Swiss
investors. The ski resort will therefore be built with Italian
investors.
The municipal coat of arms and the banner were granted by decree of
the President of the Republic on 16 July 1996.
«Departed: in the
first, of black, to the silver mountain, founded at the tip, supporting
the Doric column, of the same, it column topped by the Latin cross.
d'or: in the second, gules, to the silver cross, set aside in the first
canton by the golden lily. Commune exterior ornaments.
The first
partition of the shield is inspired by the emblem of the provostship of
Mont-Joux (Gran San Bernardo). which stands next to the columna Iovis,
an ancient Roman column that still exists which, until the end of the
19th century, was surmounted by a cross, now replaced by a statue of
Saint Bernard. The black enamel of the background alludes to the local
coal mines which supplied the steelworks of Aosta from 1928 to 1966. The
silver Savoy cross on a red field reminds us that the territory of La
Thuile, like all of the Valdigne, was part of the territories under the
direct dominion of the Savoy. The golden lily is taken from the coat of
arms of the Du Châtelard nobles, who owned a stronghold in La Thuile.
Villaggi
Arly, Bathieu, Buic, Entrèves, Grande Golette, Les
Granges, Moulin, Petite Golette, Pont Serrand, Thovex, Villaret.
Locality
Faubourg, La Joux, Les Suches, Petit-Saint-Bernard, Petosan,
Pierre-carrée, Preylet, Preyllon.
Alpeggi
Rutor, Plan-Veilet,
La Thuilette, Terrier du Porassey, Savarettaz, Tormotte, La Tour.
Industry
By now the mining activities (coal) ended in 1966,
present in an artisanal form from the early 1800s and strengthened in an
industrial form thanks to the Cogne steelworks in Aosta in the late
1920s.
Tourism
Like a good part of Valle d'Aosta, the
municipality's economy is based on tourism: in the winter, presences are
due to alpine skiing, thanks to the numerous facilities of the Espace
San Bernardo that reach the locality of La Rosière in French territory.
In the summer period the most significant excursions wind towards
the Albert Deffeyes refuge, the Rutor glacier and the summit of Testa
del Rutor. Other excursions branch off inside the Arpy valley.
In this municipality Fiolet and palet are played, characteristic
traditional Aosta Valley sports.
Ski
La Thuile is a well-known
ski resort: thanks to the connection with the French resort of La
Rosière, the Espace San Bernardo (so named since 2004) boasts an area of
160 km made up of 80 slopes for alpine skiing served by 38 lifts
cableways, including 11 chair lifts, 1 CAB and 5 ski lifts, as well as
about twenty kilometers of cross-country ski trails.
In February
2016, the slopes of La Thuile (especially on Franco Berthod slope 3)
hosted, for the first time in history, three competitions (two free
descents and a super-G) valid for the women's Alpine Skiing World Cup.