Torre d'Hérères

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Torre d'Hérères
Torre di Hérères as the bell tower of the church

Torre di Hérères as the bell tower of the church

Alternative name (s): Tour d'Hérères, Tour d'Hérère, Château d'Héréraz, Tour d'Héréraz
Creation time : 1000s
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status: converted into the bell tower of the church of San Giuseppe alla tour d'Héréraz
Construction: Quarry stone
Place: Perloz
Geographical location 45 ° 36 '57.3 "  N , 7 ° 48' 56.1"  E Coordinates: 45 ° 36 '57.3 "  N , 7 ° 48' 56.1"  E
Height: 585  m slm
Torre d'Hérères (Aosta Valley)
Torre d'Hérères

The Torre d'Hérères ( French Tour d'Hérères , Tour d'Hérère , Château d'Héréraz or Tour d'Héréraz ) is one of the oldest towers in the Aosta Valley and is located in the district of Hérères in the municipality of Perloz in the lower Lystal . Today the castle tower is integrated into the parish church there, the church of San Giuseppe alla tour d'Héréraz . A tree monument stood next to the complex until 2013 .

history

The Tour d'Hérères, which was probably built in the 1000s, is located on the old Chemin de la Vallaise , which connects the Aosta Valley with Piedmont and locally the main town of Véa of Perloz with the district of Hérères , taking the Lys via the Crossed the Ponte di Moretta . According to Pierre-Louis Vescoz ' , the Chemin de la Vallaise dates from pre-Roman times, possibly from that of the Salasser . For centuries, pilgrims visiting the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde sanctuary walked on it , and the local population used it to save themselves the journey through the valley floor.

The hamlet of Hérères

The tower was named after the branch of the Vallaise family to which it belonged, the De Hereris ( d'Hérères ), nobles who prospered in the 12th and 13th centuries.

In contrast to the relationship between the Savoy and other noble families in the Aosta Valley, the relationship between the Vallaise-d'Hérères and the Counts of Savoy was not in order: in 1321, Ruffin d'Hérères gave half of the Castello d'Hérères to the Savoy, from only three years later the Vallaises appropriated it again by force of arms, perhaps to reassert their rights to their fiefdom. The Balivo of Aosta stepped in and put the occupiers to flight.

In 1390 the Red Count lent his part of the rule of Hérères to Ibleto di Challant . After his death, the Castello di Hérères fell to his son, Francesco di Challant .

In 1409, the new Count of Savoy, Amadeus VIII , recognized the rights of Jean and Roulet de Vallaise from the family branches Vallaise de l'Hôtel , and Vallaise de la Côte , respectively , to the Castello d'Hérères and gave them back, even if they protested when they found out that these were allodic rights and not rulership rights . The Tour d'Hérères remained for centuries in the hands of Vallaises until Alessandro Guarene di Roero , son of Rosalie de Vallaise sold the castle to the church community that there in 1878 after the plans of surveyor Pacifique Dallou from Donnas was built and so the the original building changed significantly.

The church of San Giuseppe alla tour d'Héréraz now stands on the ruins of the old castle and is still in use.

The Chemin de la Vallaise was restored in 2002 by the municipality of Perloz and the tower was also equipped with an information board .

In January 2013, the large horse chestnut that the pastor Théophile Glésaz had planted in 1925 and which had been declared a tree monument by regional law No. 50/1990, was felled due to the risk of falling over due to a fungal infection.

description

The tower was built as a donjon modeled on the Roman towers that can be easily found in the Aosta Valley and of which the similar Torre di Ville in Arnad , the Torre de la Plantaz in Gressan and the Tour de l'Archet in Morgex are examples:

“All of these towers were built in places that have no morphological element to facilitate defense. On the contrary: the choice of flat locations, open and not always close to roads, seems clear. All of these ten structures are characterized by their particular choice of location. "

The tower has 2 meter thick walls and its floor plan has a side length of 6.5 meters. It is built of sandwich walls with a core of cast masonry , which is clad on the outside with square stone . As was customary for towers at the time, the entrance is on one of the upper floors, in the case of the Torre d'Hérères at a height of 7 meters above the ground. It has an architrave with a blind arch.

The tower was originally part of a fortified complex, which we call a medieval castle of "simple" type: the tower, the keep of the castle, was attached to an outbuilding and surrounded by a wall that has since disappeared.

Since its construction, the tower has undergone significant renovations and changes in use: the perimeter wall was demolished to obtain the building blocks needed to build the church of Hérères, and the building that was attached to the tower was converted into a residential building, in which the pastor could live. In contrast, the donjon itself was redesigned into a bell tower in 1878, with its upper end being rebuilt so that it could serve as a belfry, loosened up by arches and side walls that are reduced compared to the other sides of the tower and covered with a four-sided roof made of stone slabs.

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ Giuseppe Giacosa disagrees: he attributes it to the 13th century.
  2. ↑ Giuseppe Giacosa: I castelli valdostani, con 29 vignette di fotographie originali dell'Ing. Andra Luino . LF Cogliatti. P. 12. 1905. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b Le Chemin de la Vallaise . In: Environnement. Ambience e territorio in Valle d'Aosta . Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta. 2012. Accessed July 31, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c d Castello d'Hereres . ICastelli.it. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
  5. ↑ a b c d André Zanotto: Castelli valdostani . Musumeci, Quart (1980) 2002. ISBN 88-7032-049-9 . P. 127.
  6. ↑ Chiesa di Tour d'Héréraz . 4 communes. Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
  7. ↑ LR No. 18 of October 1, 2002: “Incentivi regionali per la valorizzazione degli itinerari storici, dei siti celebri e dei luoghi della storia e della letteratura”.
  8. ↑ L'ippocastano di Tour d'Héréraz verrà abbattuto . In: Aosta Sera . January 22, 2013. Accessed July 31, 2020.
  9. ↑ Mauro Cortellazzo: Simbologia del potere e possesso del territorio: le torri valdo stane tra XI e XIII secolo . In: Bulletin d'études préhistoriques et archeologiques alpines, Numéro spécial consacré aux Actes du XIIe Colloquesur les Alpes dans l'Antiquité. Yenne / Savoie 2-4 octobre 2009 (par les soins de Damien Daudry) . 2010. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 31, 2020.

swell

Web links

Commons : Torre d'Hérères  - Collection of images, videos and audio files