Castello di Saint-Germain

Castello di Saint-Germain
	Castello di Saint-Germain
Alternative name (s):	Tour Saint-Germain, Château de Saint-Germain
Creation time :	11th - 12th centuries
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	ruin
Construction:	Quarry stone
Place:	Montjovet
Geographical location	45 ° 43 '25.7 " N , 7 ° 40' 12.1" E Coordinates: 45 ° 43 '25.7 " N , 7 ° 40' 12.1" E
Height:	582 m slm

The Castello di Saint-Germain ( French Château de Saint-Germain , also Tour Saint-Germain ) is the ruin of a hilltop castle in the district of Saint-Germain of the municipality of Montjovet in the Aosta Valley .

location

The ruin is located at an altitude of 656 meters on a hill above the gorge of the Dora Baltea . It sits on an amphibolite ledge , which was called Mons Iovis in Roman times and is now bordered by the Mongiovetta , a section of the Strada Statale 26 della Valle d'Aosta carved out of the rock . Among the castles of the Aosta Valley, along with the fortress of Bard and the Châtel-Argent, it is one of the most strategically important: its location made it possible to control and defend the settlement at the foot of the rock formation and the central Aosta Valley without difficulty. Located halfway on the road from Verrès to Saint-Vincent and in line of sight with the Castello di Chenal , the Castello di Saint-Germain can only be reached from the north side of the rocky spur of Montjovet. Today it is in ruins and Saint-Germain prevents access to the property due to the risk of collapse.

Pavilion on the southwest corner
South tower. The walls inside the castle, like the archways, are made of green amphibolite, which originally came from the ocean.

description

The castle is one of the larger fortresses of the Aosta Valley and shows, even if it shows traces of different epochs, the typical scheme of a simple fortress of the Aosta Valley, i.e. a medieval castle with a keep in the middle, which is 19 meters high and a side length of 6 meters has, surrounded by an imposing wall ring, to which further structures and walls were added in the following epochs. The architecture in the style of the Renaissance intervenes in this original structure . In order to reach the access on the north side, one had to and must go a path that was and is easy to defend from above.

The walls, which extend over a circumference of 200 meters, show stone arches and large windows from the Middle Ages, while the stone moldings and decorations are due to alterations in the 16th century. One can distinguish living rooms, rooms for the garrison and armories. On behalf of Count Amadeus VIII of Savoy and his successors, a renaissance bastion was built , which is separated from the walls on the north side, and defense systems against firearms .

Floor plan of the castle (Carlo Nigra).
South side of the castle, seen from below.
The castle in a lithograph by E. Gonin from the middle of the 19th century.

history

The strategically important location of the Montjovet promontory (of ancient Mons Iovis ) has been used since ancient times; In fact, Neolithic remains have been found on the hill on the summit of which the castle ruins now stand . The area was ruled successively by the Salassians and the Romans , peoples who both used communication through carrier pigeons and a system of light signals that allowed messages to be transmitted from fortress to fortress in no time.

De Mongioveto had the Castello di Saint-Germain built between the 11th and 12th centuries, presumably to control the road below and to induce travelers to pay road tolls. The central keep and a first wall ring date from this period, possibly based on an existing structure. In particular Feidino de Mongioveto seems to have been especially persistent when he called for the tolls, so that the Count of Savoy had a pretext to conquer the fortress, and repeated as the move that had been seen at the Bard Fortress.

The Castello di Saint-Germain passed into the possession of the House of Savoy , according to some sources around 1270, according to other sources in 1294. Feidino de Mongioveto received in exchange from the Savoy the dominion and the estate of Coazze in the Sangone Valley in the Canavese , however the castle did not stay in the hands of the Savoy for long. The Montjovet fief, and with it the castle, witnessed the rise of the Challants when they became the property of the family in 1295: Ebalo I of Challant , governor of Amadeus V of Savoy, obtained ownership of it in exchange for the deputy count of Aosta .

We heard about the castle again in 1377, when Ibleto di Challant imprisoned the Bishop of Vercelli , Giovanni Fieschi , for about a year in order to force him to hand over the rule of Biella to the Count of Savoy.

Francesco di Challant , adviser to Count Amadeus VIII of Savoy, brought the castle back into Savoyard hands in 1438 and gave up control of Montjovet along with the castle, the lands and the settlement. Amadeus VIII and his successors helped make the castle more efficient by switching to new military techniques. The new wall ring, the locations of the batteries, the tourelles and the locations of the cannons date from this time . According to Giuseppe Giacosa , a castellan and ten soldiers were stationed at the castle .

In 1661, at the behest of Charles Emanuel II of Savoy , the castle was abandoned and deliberately demolished so that it could not be occupied by militias of other rulers while the garrison was transferred to the fortress of Bard. At the beginning of the 18th century the castle finally fell into ruins.

Today the Castello di Saint-Germain belongs to the Aosta Valley region.

The De Mongiovetos

The De Mongiovetos were a noble family, whose traces were lost and probably with the family of Chenals of, owner of Castello di Chenal were on a neighboring promontory connected.

A source from 1250 cites a certain Bermond di Montjovet (or de Mongioveto ) as the owner of the two castles , who gradually bequeathed them to his grandchildren.

In 1261 Philippe Bermond , called Feidino de Mongioveto (or Feydinus Montsjoveti ), and Ebalo I. di Challant were joint owners of the castle: the feudal devotion of the two nobles to Amadeus V of Savoy is attested.

Individual references and comments

^ ^A ^b Francesco Prinetti: Andar per sassi. Le rocce alpine fra natura e cultura. Valle d'Aosta. Canavese, Valsesia . Musumeci, Quart 2010. ISBN 978-88-7032-857-8 . Pp. 36-37.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Carlo Nigra: Torri e castelli e case forti del Piemonte dal 1000 al secolo XVI. La Valle d'Aosta . Musumeci, Quart 1974. pp. 30-31.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Castello di Saint-Germain . ICastelli.it. May 23, 2010. Archived from the original on January 30, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Il Castello di Saint Germain . Comune di Montjovet. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
^ ^A ^b ^c Margherita Morra: Guida ai castelli della Val d'Aosta . Legenda, Novara 2001. ISBN 88-509-0050-3 . P. 31.
^ Castelli . Regione Autonoma di Valle d'Aosta. August 10, 2011. Accessed July 20, 2020.
↑ Carlo Nigra writes that Count Philip of Savoy confiscated the Montjovet fief between 1260 and 1275.
^ ^A ^b Margherita Morra: Guida ai castelli della Val d'Aosta . Legenda, Novara 2001. ISBN 88-509-0050-3 . P. 32.
^ Giuseppe Giacosa: I castelli valdostani. Con 29 vignette di fotografie originali dell'Ing. Andra Luino . LF Cogliatti. P. 318, 1905. Retrieved July 21, 2020.

swell

Margherita Morra: Guida ai castelli della Val d'Aosta . Legenda, Novara 2001. ISBN 88-509-0050-3 .
Carlo Nigra: Torri e castelli e case forti del Piemonte dal 1000 al secolo XVI. La Valle d'Aosta . Musumeci, Quart 1974.
Jean Baptiste de Tillier: Historique de la vallée d'Aoste . Ed. L. Mensio. Pp. 445-446. (1737) 1887.
Giuseppe Giacosa: I castelli valdostani. Con 29 vignette di fotografie originali dell'Ing. Andra Luino . LF Cogliatti. Pp. 119 ff. 1905. Retrieved on July 21, 2020.
Mauro Minola, Beppe Ronco: Valle d'Aosta. Castelli e fortificazioni . Macchione, Varese 2002. ISBN 88-8340-116-6 . P. 23.
Augusta Lange: Disegni cinquecenteschi dei castelli di Montjovet e di Bard in Bollettino della Soc. Piem. di Archeologia e Belle Arti , Volume I. Turin 1947. pp. 61-69.
Francesco Corni: Valle d'Aosta medievale . Tipografia Testolin, Sarre 2005.

Web links

Commons : Castello di Saint-Germain - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Il Castello di Saint Germain . Comune di Montjovet. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
Castelli . Regione Autonoma di Valle d'Aosta. August 10, 2011. Accessed July 20, 2020.

[Prinetti3637-1] A ^b Francesco Prinetti: Andar per sassi. Le rocce alpine fra natura e cultura. Valle d'Aosta. Canavese, Valsesia . Musumeci, Quart 2010. ISBN 978-88-7032-857-8 . Pp. 36-37.

[Nigra3031-2] Carlo Nigra: Torri e castelli e case forti del Piemonte dal 1000 al secolo XVI. La Valle d'Aosta . Musumeci, Quart 1974. pp. 30-31.

[ICastelli-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Castello di Saint-Germain . ICastelli.it. May 23, 2010. Archived from the original on January 30, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2020.

[ComuneMontjovet-4] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Il Castello di Saint Germain . Comune di Montjovet. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2020.

[Morra31-5] A ^b ^c Margherita Morra: Guida ai castelli della Val d'Aosta . Legenda, Novara 2001. ISBN 88-509-0050-3 . P. 31.

[RegioneVDA-6] Castelli . Regione Autonoma di Valle d'Aosta. August 10, 2011. Accessed July 20, 2020.

[Bemerkung1-7] Carlo Nigra writes that Count Philip of Savoy confiscated the Montjovet fief between 1260 and 1275.

[Morra32-8] A ^b Margherita Morra: Guida ai castelli della Val d'Aosta . Legenda, Novara 2001. ISBN 88-509-0050-3 . P. 32.

[Giacosa318-9] Giuseppe Giacosa: I castelli valdostani. Con 29 vignette di fotografie originali dell'Ing. Andra Luino . LF Cogliatti. P. 318, 1905. Retrieved July 21, 2020.