Tornalla di Oyace

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Tornalla di Oyace
Tornalla di Oyace in winter

Tornalla di Oyace in winter

Alternative name (s): Tour Tornalla
Creation time : 12th Century
Castle type : Hilltop castle
Conservation status: ruin
Construction: Quarry stone
Place: Oyace
Geographical location 45 ° 51 '0.6 "  N , 7 ° 23' 10.5"  E Coordinates: 45 ° 51 '0.6 "  N , 7 ° 23' 10.5"  E
Height: 1439  m
Tornalla di Oyace (Aosta Valley)
Tornalla di Oyace

The Tornalla di Oyace or tour Tornalla is the ruins of a medieval tower ( keep ) on a rocky promontory south-east over the district Crétaz the municipality of Oyace in the Aosta Valley and northwest over the Betenda gorge, the brook Buthier has buried over the centuries.

history

The name "Tornalla", which is directly related to its defensive function, is quite common in the Aosta Valley for towers for various purposes, whether for signal transmission or as a defense tower. The tower of Oyace is a crenellated tower; perhaps also because of the octagonal shape of its ground plan, its building was traditionally attributed to a group of Saracens who were exiled to Valpelline around the year 1000 ; so it could be the oldest castle in the Aosta Valley.

The entrance door to the tower on one of the upper floors

The tower was built in the Middle Ages, according to Giuseppe Giacosa probably in the 12th century, but there are no more precise records: the tower is mentioned in a document from 1197 in which a man named "Ricalmo" called the " Allod in Ayacy " granted to the Church of St. Ursus .

The fortified complex was loaned to the Lords of Oyace, about whom nothing more is known.

Count Amadeus IV of Savoy ruled between 1233 and 1253 that the castle had to be demolished in order to punish the Lords of Oyace, who were guilty of inappropriate behavior towards the House of Savoy . Only the tower is left of the permanent house .

Between 1253 and 1287, Oyace fell into the hands of the powerful lords of the Porte of Saint Ursus, who were already lords of Quart , and became part of the Baronate of Quart, Valpelline and Oyace . These gentlemen gave direct control to the House of Savoy in the second half of the 14th century.

In 1612 the property changed hands again and came into the hands of Perrone di San Martino .

The tower, which is now considered a Monument of Interest on Alta Via della Val d'Aosta No. 1, is in good condition, thanks in part to the restoration of the property that created the “Tour Tornalla” path .

A radio antenna system was installed next to the tower and to demonstrate the strategic importance of the site. In the 2010s, a three-year program by various units and administrations from 2011 to 2013 to improve signal reception by end users saw the digitization of some systems and the relocation of the radio antenna systems of the Rai Way on the Tornalla di Oyace site to the new Chalambé site and the liberation of the ledge from the radio transmitter station.

As a result of the Determina del Segretario comunale n ° 39 of September 7, 2012, the Riqualificazione ambientale e funzionale aree Tornalla e Betenda (English: environmental and functional improvement of the areas around Tornalla and Betenda) has been in progress, leading to the closure of the Access path to the Tornalla di Oyace.

description

Floor plan of the ruins (1936) by Carlo Nigra based on a sketch by '' Alfredo d'Andrade ''
Back of the tower against the ledge, once protected by a double wall ring

The tower's floor plan is octagonal, which is an architectural anomaly compared to other military buildings in the Aosta Valley from this period. Strangely enough, Giuseppe Giacosa describes it as a hexagonal tower.

It is 11.7 meters high, has an outside diameter of 7.5 meters and an inside diameter of 3.5 meters: the thickness of the load-bearing walls is therefore 2 meters.

The access door ( high entrance ) is, as was customary in the Aosta Valley in the Middle Ages, a few meters above the ground in order to better allow the residents to defend their post. A movable staircase, probably made of wood, was used to access the tower.

There are only a few traces of the walls surrounding the tower: the most easily accessible part, opposite the raised entrance, which was more protected because it faced the rock spur, had a double curtain wall for defense .

The rock relief on which the Tornalla di Oyace stands consists of the same African pre-alpine rocks of the Valpelline unit that we find in the blocks from which the tower walls were built, recently cemented with lime in some places. Its mineralogical properties are the reason for the reddish-brown color of the tower and the ledge, a color that sometimes seeps into the walls.

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ But some sources report a hexagonal floor plan.
  2. ↑ a b c Giuseppe Giacosa: I castelli valdostani. Con 29 vignette di fotografie originali dell'Ing. Andra Luino . LF Cogliati. P. 14.1905. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  3. ^ Monumenti e luoghi da visitare . NaturaValp. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c La Tornalla . In: Turismo e Iniziative . Comune di Oyace. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  5. ↑ Oyace . Ida Travel. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  6. ↑ On voit encore à présent entre Montjovet et Saint-Vincent , au lieu dit "Les Fourches", des piliers de potence: on assure, par une espèce de tradition, qu'ils furent jadis érigés sur les débris de la maison forte d ' un seigneur dont ignore le nom et qui, pour sa mauvaise conduite, vit son manoir détruit et rasé au sol. La tour et maison forte des Seigneurs d'Oyace, dans la vallée de Valpelline; la tour dite à présent des Coursi, sous le grand chemin avant d'entrer à La Salle, dont la moitié est encore sur pied; la tour de Balnea, au dessus de l'église de Gressan, aussi à moitié détruite, et tant d'autres dont il ne reste que quelques vestiges, paraissent avoir eu le même sort, et avoir été abattues dans ces anciens temps à des seigneurs dont les noms même nous sont demeurés inconnus. (German: You can still see gallows pillars between Montjovet and Saint-Vincent, at a place called "Les Fourches": a kind of legend assures that they were once built on the rubble of the permanent house of a gentleman, whose name is one does not know and who, because of his bad behavior, had to watch his manor house being destroyed and shaved to the ground. The tower and the permanent house of the Lords of Oyace with the Valpelline valley ; the tower that is now called "Des Coursi", on the big road before entering La Salle , half of which can still be walked, the Balnea tower below the Church of Gressan , also half destroyed, and so many others, only a few remains who seem to have had the same fate and were destroyed in these olden times by those gentlemen whose names are unknown even to us.)
  7. ^ Jean-Baptiste de Tillier: Historique de la Vallée d'Aoste . L. Mensio. S. 40. (1737) 1887. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  8. ^ Giuseppe Giacosa: I castelli valdostani. Con 29 vignette di fotografie originali dell'Ing. Andra Luino . LF Cogliati. P. 41, 1905. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  9. ↑ The exact year is not certain, but it was already recorded in the general audiences of the Aosta Valley of 1287, which were written under Count Amadeus V of Savoy .
  10. ↑ RPP 2011-2013 . Comunità Montana Grand Combin. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  11. ↑ Riqualificazione ambientale Oyace . PAeP.it. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  12. ^ 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 . P. 99.

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Web links

Commons : Tornalla di Oyace  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • La Tornalla . In: Castelli e Torri . Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  • Tour Tornalla . In: Turismo . Comune di Oyace. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  • La Tornalla . In: Turismo e Iniziative . Comune di Oyace. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  • Arte e cultura . In: Gran San Bernardo . Regione Autonoma Valle d'Aosta. Retrieved August 14, 2020.