Heritage: Aosta

Along the southern section of the walls, on the railway station square, there is the most representative tower of the ancient Roman perimeter, named du Pailleron because it was long used for hay storage.
The tower, with a square floor plan and open on the four sides with six big windows, three for each level, is inserted in a part of roman walls which was open in the middle ages to build the so called “Porta Ferriére”.

After being damaged by fire, at the end of the 19th century the tower was subjected to a careful restoration work using brick, under the supervision of Alfredo d’Andrade.

Not open to visitors.

Situated on the corner of Via Tourneuve and Via Monte Solarolo, the ancient cylindrical tower, with battlements and door placed at safety height, emerges in the north-western part of the Roman walls, well-preserved and in an isolated green area.
It is named in documents from the 13th century, as belonging to the Challant family, who had the title of Viscounts of Aosta and who controlled the entire south-west side of the walls. It was then transferred to the De Turre Nova family, from whom it gets its name.

Not open to visitors.

The church of Santo Stefano is located in the Northern zone of the city of Aosta, just outside the walled perimeter of Augusta Praetoria near the ancient Roman road which, exiting from Porta Principalis Sinistra, led to the Alpis Poenina (the current Gran San Bernardo pass).

The first documental information on the parish of Saint Stephan dates back to the 13th century. In other medieval documents the building of worship was indicated as a “Basilica”, perhaps due to its particular position inside a funeral area from a previous era.

During the middle ages however, the church was a meeting point within a micro-urban reality such as the area of Aosta called “II Faubourg de Saint Etienne” or “De La Rive”, from the name of the canal that still crosses it today.

Up until 1776, like other similar areas, this suburb represented a veritable urban-administrative entity, separate from the rest of the city of Aosta.
The current building was built on the walled structures of a previous church from the 15th century, to which an inscription on the architrave of the right hand entrance door refers: “Hoc opus fecit fieri Jaquemin Pastor” (Jaquemin Pastor had this building built). The church was restored extensively in 1728-29, as appears from the agreement stipulated on 25 April 1728 by the parish priest Clérin, who also had the bell tower raised. The frescoes on the facade were, on the other hand, painted by his successor Michel-Joseph Rosaire, the parish priest between 1729 and 1735.

Overlooking the central Via Aubert near the Regional Library, the church was built in 1682-83 by the Brotherhood of Mercy, who had the task of assisting the prisoners and to accompany the condemned to the gallows. The Brotherhood gave the material and Jean-Boniface Festaz, general treasurer of the Duchy of Aosta and founder of the Hospice of Charity, paid the expenses of the workforce.
The nineteenth-century facade decoration in trompe-l’œil imitates an architecture that includes a painting of the Finding of the True Cross by St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine.
The interior contains various antique furniture from 17th to 19th century. The sumptuous main altar in baroque Valsesian style is probably due to the generosity of the Saint Ours’ prior Charles-Hyacinthe Beltram, who in 1737 made major donations to the Brotherhood.

The church
The archeological dig carried out in several batches between 1976 and 1999, allowed for the building’s constructive stages to be rediscovered. The digs involved an area which used to be part of a large extra-urban necropolis, where, at the beginning of the 5th century, there was an early-Christian complex which also included the cruciform church of S. Lorenzo. At the centre of the south nave, the basement of a funeral building was found, it may be dated to some time between the 4th and 5th centuries A.D.; the primitive church, which was erected to the north of this mausoleum, consisted of a simple apsidal hall surrounded by a portico destined for use as privileged burial grounds.
In the 9th century, the church was completely rebuilt and enlarged, moving the general axis of the building southwards, the eastern extremity has three apses, while the facade was rebuilt to the west of the early-Christian one. In the year 989, a bell tower was added to the facade, the remains of which are still visible up to a height of approximately 15 m.
At the beginning of the 11th century, the romanesque church that incorporated the bell tower in the new facade was built, despite the fact that its position was eccentric with respect to the longitudinal axis of the new church. The building has a basilical layout, it is divided up into three naves and ends with semi-circular apses.
The current bell tower, which was built in the 12th century, originally belonged to a defense system consisting of a boundary wall and a second large tower, the remains of which were uncovered against the church’s northern perimeter wall.
The archeological remains are not visible because they are situated immediately below the floor of the church.

The beautiful fifteenth century wooden choir, the ancient crypt and the significant cycle of frescoes (11th century) which are visible in the attic of the church, are certainly worth mentioning.

The archeological dig of the choir of the church of S. Orso allowed for a square-shaped floor mosaic to be brought back to the surface, it was unknown and not mentioned by the sources, it was made with black and white tiles with some inserts of light brown coloured tiles. A series of six circles inscribed in the square, acts as a frame for the central decorations. In the central medallion there is an elegant representation of Samson killing the lion.

The cloister
The cloister is the jewel in the crown of the monumental complex of Sant’Orso, which can be accessed from an open hallway on the right hand side of the facade. The primitive romanesque layout almost certainly dates back to 1133 and it was the work of Provencal or Lombard craftsmen, when the Bull by Pope Innocence II imposed the rule of Saint Augustine on the canons of Sant’Orso, the cloister was already existent, as is evident from an inscription above one of the capitals. The capitals, which were sculpted in marble put which were already decorated with a dark varnish during ancient times, complete simple coupled columns with different shapes and admirably depict symbolic scenes from the Old and New Testaments, from the life of Saint Orso, imaginative characters or animals or else contain different decorative elements. They are considered to be among the utmost expressions of romanesque religious sculpture.

The chapel, located in the part of Aosta known in ancient times as “Terziere della Bicheria” faces onto what is now Via De Tillier and in Medieval times was an important town road for general traffic and trade activities. In “Bicheria” there was a church that had existed since at least 1245, dedicated to Saint Gratus. It probably stood between the current Via Croix de Ville and Via Lostan. However, the chapel was most likely built in the 15th century under the patronage of the Chapter of the Aosta Cathedral. For a certain period this would have existed alongside the ancient and larger church of Saint Gratus; perhaps only after the latter completely lost its importance, this small building became dedicated to the saint bishop of Aosta. In the 18th century it began to decline until it was given to firefighters (1780) and was subsequently used as a storehouse: the partial destruction of the fresco on the façade and of the upper part of the doorway for the creation of a new entrance dates back to this time. In the second half of the 19th century, the chapel was used as a dressmaker’s and clothing shop.

The façade is decorated with a votive fresco, a gift from the citizen Malcastia in 1512: following a late gothic style that was by then dying out, the painting represents the Madonna and Child among the saints Nicholas, Catherine, Barbara and Margaret to which Saint Gratus was later added. It is one of the rare testimonies of early 16th century painting in the Aosta Valley. The inside is made up of a rectangular hall leading towards a cross vault with pointed arches. The ribs characterise the sober late gothic architecture: these branch off from the keystone and are arranged along four corners until reaching the ground. The apse wall of the chapel shows a fresco that probably dates back to the last quarter of the 16th century, mentioned for the first time in the occasion of a pastoral visit in 1624. At the centre an elaborate architectural structure in classical style depicted using a trompe l’œil technique represents a Pietà with lots of characters at the foot of three impressive crosses. Some showcases with ledges and supports have been arranged to exhibit archaeological material unearthed during the excavations carried out in the restoration stages.

Now deconsecrated, the chapel holds exhibitions of works produced by the Aosta Valley Artists’ Association,who renamed the building “Galleria San Grato” (Saint Gratus Gallery).

What is now piazza Giovanni XXIII rises up on the southern part of what was the sacred area of the Roman Forum during the era of Augusta Praetoria, marked off spectacularly by the Cryptoporticus.
The crucial importance of this area for the life of the city, was no less significant during the centuries that saw the progressive decline and the end of that which constituted the Roman world: to the east of the Cryptoporticus, in fact, the first building dedicated to the Christian faith was erected.

In this pre-existing complex, towards the end of the 4th century, the Cathedral was built. It was a building of imposing dimensions, with a single apsidal nave, complete with a baptistery to the west and various annexed rooms, one of which was destined for use as a secondary baptistery. The facade was a few metres from the structures of the eastern wing of the cryptoporticus and it was practically linked to the same by the structures of the main baptistery. This complex, to which a few southern rooms were added to be used as the episcopal residence or dwelling places for the clergy, continued to be used for several centuries and its appearance did not undergo any significant changes, with the exception of a late-medieval constructive phase, up to the era of the great Romanesque construction site which gave the cathedral the appearance that it still substantially has today. The important cycle of frescoes that were brought to light in the attic of the church also originate from this phase of the 11th century: together with those of Sant’Orso, they have contributed to making Aosta one of the main centres of Ottonian art in Europe.

During the second half of the 11th century, the western body of the building was completely rebuilt, it consisted of two towers and an overhanging central apse, during the 13th century two of the five original apses were demolished and the ambulatory area was built, a ring-like corridor around the choir. Between the 15th century and the early years of the 16th century then, the bishops of Aosta planned a radical restoration intervention on the church and enriched it with numerous works of art. The upper choir, which was dominated by a wooden crucifix dating back to the 14th century, has two tiers of seating sculpted around 1460, on the floor there are two mosaics from the 12th and 14th century, representing the months of the year and a series of real and imaginative animals along with the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

The main altar is baroque, made of black marble with multi-coloured inlay work. There are two staircases leading down from the choir, one on the right and the other on the left, they give access to the 11th century crypt, its layout is articulated around three naves separated by agile little medieval columns and more robust re-used romanesque columns. On the bottom wall the original entrances to the west are visible.

The facade of the cathedral is made up of two distinct parts: an atrium dating back to the sixteenth century and a neo-classical front section which was added in 1848. The atrium has an elegant architectural design in terracotta, decorated with statues and frescoes depicting the life of the Virgin Mary, to whom the church is dedicated, a splendid example of renaissance art in Valle d’Aosta.

Next to the church, on the northern side, is the cloister. This is a trapezoidal shaped building which was completed in 1460 and which replaces a similar one which already stood in the 11th century. Its architectural elements are characterised by the presence of different materials: grey bardiglio, used for the pilasters, alternated with crystalline lime for the capitals and limestone, used for the ashlars of the arches. There are two types of capitals: some are decorated with vegetable motifs and figures of men and animals, others have the names of those who contributed to the construction sculpted into them. In the central square there is a Romanesque column surmounted by a Corinthian capital, probable testimonies of the nearby forensic area. Around 1860, the southern wing of the cloister was mostly demolished to allow space for the neo-gothic Rosary chapel.

The Treasure Museum provides a significant overview of the art of Valle d’Aosta between the 13th-18th centuries, combining pieces from the Cathedral’s rich treasure with certain works of art originating from different parishes in the Valley.

Between the end of 1400 and beginning 1500 George of Challant, prior of Sant’Orso and great humanist-benefactor, orders to build, beside the church of S. Orso, the priory:a luxurious residence used for representation, a building inspired by the modern public buildings of Piedmont and Lombardy.It is a mix between new and old:the facade is in Renaissance style, with the window frames decorated by terracotta panels; other elements like the octagonal tower and ogives are a heritage of Gothic architecture.Inside the frescoes of the chapel are worth noticing, works created by end of the XV century Franco-Valdostan artists.

Il Coro Penne Nere nasce nel 1958 grazie ad una richiesta dell’A.N.A. di Aosta ed alla volontà di pochi appassionati amanti del canto e della festa, ed è stato diretto per oltre quarant’anni dal maestro Guido Sportelli.

Concerto dopo concerto, il Coro è cresciuto artisticamente, passando attraverso cambiamenti musicali che, dalle forme più strettamente tradizionali, sono arrivati al genere moderno, fino a sconfinare in alcune sperimentazioni.

“L’Ensemble du Grand Combin – Cor des Alpes “ nasce nell’estate del 2002 in Aosta per la divulgazione e la conoscenza del “cor des Alpes”, antico strumento a fiato, conosciuto in tutti i territori di montagna tra cui le confinanti Svizzera e Savoia.

La semplicità e la povertà del legno lavorato ed usato per la costruzione dello strumento, è simbolo e specularità delle più significative tradizioni alpine, costituendo un vivo “trait d’union” tra la normale vita quotidiana e le più vive manifestazioni in ambiente pastorale e rurale.

Dall’estate del 2002, “L’ensemble du Grand Combin “ ha partecipato a numerosi eventi sia in questa regione sia in Piemonte e Lombardia, riscuotendo un crescente entusiasmo, suscitando e generando negli spettatori, particolari ed evocative emozioni.