Search all museums

Located in Chevrère, in the village of Covarey, the Mont Avic Regional Park visitors centre includes:

- an information point where you can watch films and admire pictures of the park on the large video wall, receive detailed information and publications on Mont Avic and the entire protected alpine area network and consult nature publications;

- a nature museum that describes the Park’s rocky environments, wetlands and forests, involving visitors with interactive systems;

-a multipurpose room where educational activities, films, meetings and temporary exhibits are held;

- a model in 1:5000 scale, located on the lawn, that faithfully reproduces the park and its surroundings.

Brochures and pamphlets are available in the outdoor distributor even when the information point is closed.

Inside the Centre the map of Mont Avic Park scaled at 1:25,000 can be purchased for 5,00 €; it includes useful information for hikers - in Italian, French and English – and two simplified cartographic inserts.

Discover the mining soul of Champdepraz and step back in time to the 18th and 19th centuries, when mining was the lifeblood of this valley.
This museum doesn’t just tell a story – it immerses you in it. Powerful visuals, engaging videos, and striking reconstructions bring history to life.

As you walk through the exhibits, each panel opens a window to the past, while faithful scenographical reconstructions, such as a cross-section of an original charcoal kiln, let you breathe in the authentic atmosphere of the mines. One gallery, designed to resemble an underground tunnel, displays mineral samples in wall niches and fills the air with the sound of tools striking rock, miners at work, and their voices echoing through the dark.

Follow the journey of the extracted material as it travels down the valley by sled or cableway, and watch its transformation into a finished product.

The museum is in the chapel of the cemetery of Antagnod (end of the 15th century), near the parish church of San Martino.
The chapel was also used as the headquarters of the various confraternities within the parish and contained a canvas belonging to the confraternity of the Most Blessed Trinity, which is now exhibited in the nearby parish church.
On the facade of the Chapel of the cemetery, there are a statue of the Madonna of the Rosary and a large Cross with symbols of the instruments of torture used in the passion of Jesus.

Exhibited works of art:

- Altar of the chapel (mid 17th century), reproducing an ecclesiastic building, the work of a Valsesian sculptor.

- Various statues of the Virgin, saints and angels.

- Pairs of Reliquary Busts (18th century) in carved wood, painted and gilded.

- Chasubles (vestments for the celebration of Mass).

- Various astylar crosses (mounted on a wooden pole to be carried in front of the processions).

- Various objects for liturgical use (chalices, monstrances, carteglorias).

- Image of the “Madonna de Barmasc” on painted cardboard.

The museum hosts moreover a Vierge ouvrante (Virgin with casket) from the middle of the 1300’s, which was found in the parish church of Antagnod. It’s a rare Madonna and Child, with the white and gold dress of Notre-Dame de Antagnod concealing the true identity of the wooden statue: the Black Madonna opens up to reveal a Trinity inside, a God Father holding up a crucifix with his arms raised above his head and the crudeness of blood painted on his suffering body. On the open doors, two angels hold up the Gospel and bow down before the Trinity. This statue, the only one found in the Aosta Valley, was known as Notre-Dame d’Antagnod, referred to as miraculous in ancient documents: following this hypothesis, some sources reveal that Jeanne Boch, accused in the trial for witchcraft in 1561, brought her stillborn baby there to ask for the gates of Heaven to be opened to him. There are only about forty Vierges ouvrantes throughout the world, which escaped from the ecclesiastic condemnation of 1745 because of theological reasons (within the Virgin Mary only Christ was incarnated, not the whole Trinity).

The building
The visitors centre of the Mont Avic Nature Park was created by restoring ‘Villa Biamonti’, a building constructed in the first years of the 20th century as a tourist residence. The restoration preserved the most characterizing elements of the building, reinterpreting in contemporary terms some of its peculiar features such as the use of wood in the internal spaces. The building was designed with anti-seismic criteria outlining the use of low environmental impact materials as well as the maximum respect of the parameters relating to energy efficiency and rational use of renewable sources.

The visit
The information office and a reception room are located on the ground floor.
The exhibition area, complementary to the Park’s Visitors Centre in Covarey of Champdepraz, was designed with the aim of the active involvement of the guests and describes the geological, morphological and biological aspects of the high altitude environments of the Park.
The first floor is dedicated to the most interesting geological and morphological characteristics of the Dondena valley, with a rich series of photographic images, finds, dynamic and plastic models on which themed maps are projected.
Flora, vegetation, fauna and pastoral activities are illustrated on the second floor. Particularly interesting are the installations about small and large predators, realized using models and finds in a unusual and very original way.

Inside the Centre the map of Mont Avic Park scaled at 1:25,000 can be purchased for 5,00 €; it includes useful information for hikers - in Italian, French and English – and two simplified cartographic inserts.

Why not take up a virtual reality tour in the Mont Avic Nature Park? Without leaving the visitor centre, a guide will show you the natural and panoramic features of the protected area.

The parish church is the result of the reconstruction of the previous church (which dates back to 1532 and which was probably built on an older church), which was carried out in 1728 by the Valsesian architect Jean Fer (or Ferro) as well as the subsequent additions and transformations: the building of the main altar in 1741 (which is also the work of an artist from Valsesia, Giovanni Battista Gilardi) and the side altars (three of which were built by a craftsman from Val d’Ayas, Claude-Maurice Freydox) between 1864 and 1868, at the same time as the creation of the two naves.

The original church, which presumably dates back to the 14th century, appears to coincide, at least in the part of the choir, with the chapel of the Bard castle. The baroque style altars made of engraved, painted and partially gilded wood, are complete with statues of saints, among which, at the centre of the main altar, there is that of Saint Nicholas, the patron of the parish. Around the alcoves in which the statues of the saints are housed, there are numerous tortile columns and statues of little angels.

At the bottom of the church, in the left hand nave, a parochial museum has been set up with the statues taken from the district chapels to save them from the numerous thefts that had occurred during the previous decades and that had significantly reduced the parish’s artistic and sacred patrimony.

Hemp weaving was an important activity in Champorcher. Production was carried out by almost all families until the end of the 1950s.
Raw materials came from the villages of Arnad and Donnas or were purchased in the Canavese district.
The loom was very simple and has undergone few modifications over time. It was built in larch wood with rope heddles and weavers still toss the shuttle manually across the loom. An example of an old loom is preserved inside the ecomuseum of the Chardonney village.
In a traditional home the loom was placed in the corner of the stable next to the window, in order to exploit the little space available. Generally weaving was done during winter watches, then the new cloth was washed in the spring. Washing was almost a ritual and ended with the fabric being displayed along the road, where it was admired and assessed by the community.
The exhibition site offers the possibility to purchase hemp items realized by the women of “Lou Dzeut” cooperative.

The museum is situated inside an ancient building in the centre of the village of Chardonney, where is also located the “Lo Dzeut” cooperative.

In the museum it is possible to admire an ancient stable, a historical building and only example currently present in Champorcher. It is possible to see an old manual wooden loom and a warping frame.
Conservation work on the rooms, including a cellar (crotta), a rustic kitchen (meison) and a stable (boi), were varied in nature, however always in compliance with the structure, the fixtures and furniture, and their background and use.
The loom was restored to pristine condition to be used for demonstrations.

Buy your tickets on-line

The castle
Built at the beginning of the 1900s following the plans of the engineer Carlo Saroldi, it was commissioned by Charles Maurice Gamba, husband of Angélique d‘Entrèves, daughter of Count Christin d‘Entrèves. Since 1982 it has become property of the Aosta Valley Autonomous Region.

The contemporary and modern art collection
After a complex restoration work, today the castle houses an exhibition route distributed through 13 rooms, with over 150 works of art such as paintings, sculptures, installations, drawings and photographs belonging to a regional collection dating back from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day.
Beside the works of the maestros of the 20th century, including the sculptures of Martini, Mastroianni, Manzù, Arnaldo and Giò Pomodoro, and paintings by Casorati, De Pisis, Carrà and Guttuso, the collection documents Italian figurative art production from the second half of the century up to contemporary research exponents, such as Schifano, Baruchello, Rama and Mainolfi.
A vast and varied selection of works testifies to the movements that have animated the Italian art scene over the past 25 years: for example, the exhibition hosts representations of informal art, geometric abstraction, transavantgarde and pop art. Particular importance is given to the Aosta Valley region through the activity of local artists, or those active in the Valley, on regional commission.

For visitors seeking both learning and distraction, the exhibition offers a series of services designed to bring different categories of visitors (families, adults, schools, children, young people) closer to modern and contemporary art through workshop activities, guided tours and events.

The park
The castle is surrounded by an english park, which stretches over a total area of 54.000 square metres, and which hosts about 150 trees of different species. Inside there are three monumental trees: the geant Sequoia from California, the Bald cypress and the Honey Locust.

How to get here

From Aosta by public transport:

Bus 110 – Aosta – Pont-Saint-Martin, running every day, bus stop ‘Châtillon – Chameran Bivio’. Timetable available on aosta.arriva.it. Continue on foot for about 10 minutes towards the castle.

Bus tickets can be bought at the authorised ticket offices or directly on the bus without any additional fee. Cash or card payments are accepted on the bus.

Even if tradition wishes for its establishment to be an ancient one, in fact dating back to the passage of St. Peter during his mission to evangelise the Gauls, it is documented from the XII century onwards.
Very little remains of the primitive architecture. The current parish church was inaugurated in 1905.

Inside, can admire certain paintings from 1904 and 1905 by the Artari painters from Verrès and visit a small museum of sacred art, located on the left side of the presbytery, with some precious liturgical objects (including a precious 16th century Gothic monstrance and a 15th century silver-plated copper reliquary), wooden statues of saints from the 15th century andsacred vestments.

The Honey Museum in Châtillon is located in the basement of the former Hotel Londres, overlooking the ravine on the Marmore river. 

The museum opened in 2007, thanks to the Aosta Valley Honey Consortium and the help of local beekepers; it hosts a rich collection of historical tools for beekeeping, such as a 1902 beehive and a 1929 machine for the production of wax frameworks, the first one to be held in the Aosta Valley.

Visitors a led along an interesting tour that tells the evolution of regional  beekeeping, from its origins to the modern day.