Saint-Pierre Castle (Aosta Valley)
| Saint-Pierre Castle | ||
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 Saint-Pierre Castle 2005 |
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| Alternative name (s): | Château de Saint-Pierre, Castello di Saint-Pierre | |
| Geographical location | 45 ° 42 '37 " N , 7 ° 13' 39" E | |
| Height: | 745 m | |
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The castle Saint-Pierre ( French Château de Saint-Pierre , Italian Castello di Saint-Pierre ) is a castle on a rocky promontory above the village of Saint-Pierre in the French-speaking Aosta Valley , Italy .
history
The well-preserved medieval castle was first mentioned in a document in 1191. In the 12th century it belonged to the Lords of Quart and in 1321 came into the hands of the Duke of Savoy . From 1405 the complex was owned by the Challant family , who sold the entire property to the Roncas in 1600. Pierre Philibert Roncas enlarged the castle and had it furnished splendidly. In 1798 the Gerbores acquired the facility, which in 1873, somewhat dilapidated, passed it on to Baron Emanuele Bollati. He commissioned the Turin architect Camillo Boggio with the expansion, which gave the complex its current, castle-like shape. Boggio is said to have based himself heavily on Christian Jank's designs for the design of the Bavarian castles under Ludwig II .
Since 1985 the castle has housed a regional museum of natural history, which shows exhibits from the Aosta Valley from the areas of environment, mineralogy, botany, geology and zoology.
The complex is now owned by the municipality of Saint Pierre and cannot currently be visited due to renovation work.
description
The castle occupies an area of about 1400 m². It has a circumferential, crenellated circular wall and a striking square keep , which carries four other, smaller, round watch towers . On the lowest level of the facility, right after the entrance, there are remarkable underground former stables that were hewn out of the rock.
These form the foundation of the two-winged castle complex, which is oriented in an east-west direction. The expansion, which has grown over the centuries, now includes nine, partly splendidly furnished rooms in the two-story wing buildings. The so-called throne room with the fireplace, in which the high society used to meet regularly for banquets, is outstanding .
From the southern courtyard one can see the whole valley of the Dora Baltea . Directly below the courtyard is the parish church of Saint Pierre, the foundations of which are older than the castle itself and date from before the 10th century.
literature
- Francesco Corni: Valle d'Aosta medievale. Tipografia Testolin, Sarre 2005.
- Mauro Minola, Beppe Ronco: Valle d'Aosta. Castelli e fortificazioni. Macchione, Varese 2002, ISBN 88-8340-116-6 , p. 49.
- Francesco Prinetti: Andar per sassi. Le rocce alpine fra natura e cultura. Valle d'Aosta, Canavese, Valsesia. Musumeci, Quart (AO) 2010, ISBN 978-88-7032-857-8 , p. 45.
- André Zanotto: Castelli valdostani. Musumeci, Quart (AO) 2002, ISBN 88-7032-049-9 .
Web links
- Information about the castle on regione.vda.it (French, Italian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b museoscienze.it ( Memento from April 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ History of Saint-Pierre Castle , accessed on August 31, 2016.
- ↑ Castello di Saint-Pierre ( Memento of the original from April 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed August 31, 2016.
- ↑ Description on castelli.it , accessed on August 31, 2016.
