Exilles

Exilles
Country	Italy
region	Piedmont
Metropolitan city	Turin (TO)
Coordinates	45 ° 6 ' N , 6 ° 56' E Coordinates: 45 ° 5 '51 " N , 6 ° 55' 46" E
height	870 m slm
surface	44.4 km²
Residents	238 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density	5 inhabitants / km²
Factions	Deveyes, Morliere, San Colombano, Champbons
Post Code	10050
prefix	0122
ISTAT number	001100
Popular name	Esillesi or Exillesi
Patron saint	St. Peter
Website	Exilles

Exilles ( Occitan Insilha or Isiya , Piedmontese Isiles ; in the time of fascism Esille ) is a municipality with 238 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) in the Italian metropolitan city of Turin , Piedmont region .

View of the Fort of Exilles from the east

geography

The place is 68 km west of Turin and 24 km east of the Fréjus tunnel .

Exilles is located in the Susa Valley (Val di Susa), through which the Dora Riparia flows, on the border between Piedmont and the French Dauphiné . To the north it is dominated by the Graian Alps and to the south by the Cottian Alps . The neighboring communities of Exilles are Bardonecchia , Bramans (France), Chiomonte , Giaglione , Oulx , Pragelato , Salbertrand and Usseaux . The community includes the hamlets of Cels, Deveyes, San Colombano and Champbons.

traffic

Exilles is on the Strada Statale SS 24 del Monginevro , which leads from Turin to the French border at Colle del Monginevro , and on the A32 Autostrada del Frejus motorway , which is completely tunneled under the municipality. The next motorway exit Oulx Ovest is 12 km west of the town center.

Trains no longer stop at Exilles train station on the Turin- Modane railway line , so public transport is handled exclusively by SADEM bus routes.

The village

Village with the fortress in the background

The village, which is characterized by stone-built houses, is criss-crossed by the Via Roma, which represents the old course of the road, the Roman Via Domitia , from the Colle del Monginevro to the Po Valley. In the center of the village is the church of San Pietro Apostolo from the 15th century with a bell tower from the 11th century.

The fortress

View from the west

Exilles is dominated by a fortress built in the 19th century which, after Fenestrelle and Bard, is one of the most powerful in the Alps. The rock spur in the middle of the valley offered itself at all times for a fortification to block the Susa valley.

The origins may go back to Roman times . At least up to modern times there are traditions of Roman wall remains. The engineer Jean de Beins recorded a Muraille faitte par les Romains (a wall erected by the Romans) in a plan from 1609 . There is also repeated talk of a Tour de César . However, since these structures have completely disappeared today, they can no longer be assigned.

In the 8th century, a chronicler of the Novalesa monastery reported of a fortification in Exilles that was destroyed by Charlemagne . After that, Exilles is listed as a vicus , i.e. an unpaved village. By the beginning of the 12th century at the latest, the upper Susa valley came under the rule of the Counts of Albon . The fortification of Exilles was probably expanded again by them, because a castle is mentioned again in 1155. However, a more precise description of the castle as a four-cornered complex fortified with towers dates from 1339. After the county passed to France, the complex was expanded by Charles VIII from 1494 to 1496 and adapted to the technical development of firearms. The gate was enlarged to accommodate cannons.

In 1559 Exilles came to Savoy through the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis and the fortress was rebuilt, as the enemy was now in the other direction. During the same period, the influence of Waldensians and Calvinists increased in the French part of Val Chisone and Val di Susa (Susa Valley). Exilles was facing a century of religious wars in which it changed hands several times. In 1601 the fortress was modernized again by the French engineer Jean de Beins and on this occasion the almost one kilometer long royal ramp (Rampa Reale), which is still characteristic today, was added to the main entrance. After being conquered again in 1708, the fortress fell back to Savoy in the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 and was then renovated by the fortress builder Ignazio Giuseppe Bertola Roveda .

After Napoléon Bonaparte occupied Piedmont in 1798, he ordered the razing of the Savoy fortresses. By autumn of the same year, the Exilles Castle and the Rampa Reale had disappeared to the ground. With the restoration of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont , securing the alpine crossings quickly became relevant again. On behalf of the king, Giovanni Antonio Rana built a fort on the site of the old castle from 1818 to 1829 according to the most modern military knowledge. To the east, towards Turin, the fortress is almost closed, while the artillery faces west, towards France. In front of the walls there is a wide, rising field of fire and a deep trench. With a few later additions, the fort has been preserved to this day.

After Mussolini's deposition in World War II and the Badoglio armistice agreement on September 8, 1943, the military was withdrawn from Exilles and was never to return.

The now dilapidated fortress was completely restored from 1978 onwards and since 2000 it has housed a museum worth seeing, which is jointly maintained by the Piedmont region and the Museo Nazionale della Montagna of the Club Alpino Italiano Turin.

Legends

A mysterious prisoner under the name Maschera di Ferro (the man in the iron mask ) was held in the fortress of Exilles between 1681 and 1687 . Even after more than 200 years of research, it is still unclear who this was. A popular theory, which has been filmed several times, says that it was an illegitimate son of the French king or his twin brother who always had to wear an iron mask.

Population development

politics

Michelangelo Luigi Castellano (Citizen List) was elected Mayor in June 2009. He replaced Gianfranco Joannas, who was no longer running.

Town twinning

Exilles has a partnership with the French city of Château-Ville-Vieille in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region .

swell

↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.

Web links

Commons : Exilles - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

Forte di Exilles, Luca Patria, Edizione Museo Nazionale della Montagna, Torino 1996, ISBN 88-85903-64-9

[1] Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.