Heritage: Courmayeur

The most qualified expansion of this famous tourist resort occurred between the two World Wars. The most typical type of town of the period is represented by villas surrounded by large gardens.
Villa Tondani, Via Donzelli 2, is a characteristic compound of Medieval style buildings. The villa is made up of the main building (1930), a chapel with a stone and plaster bell tower, an L-shaped portico with stone columns and arches, a stone pavilion with trefoil windows and portico on the facade. The garden that combines natural elements (stream, pond, etc.) with artificial ones (walls, roads, balustrades, etc.) is extremely interesting.
near the villa Tondani stands La Freidolina (1916), an asymmetrical building with a stone facade and other parts imitating latticework constructions.
Another latticework construction with a steep roof is the Villa Marone, Strada Le Volpi 1, an articulated structure built in 1925 and recently renovated. It was once surrounded by a large park, no longer existent.
Villa Bagnara, Via XVI Luglio, (1935) is a three-story stone building with stone jambs and architraves. The sculptured door at the end of a short staircase opens onto Viale Monte Bianco.

The craftsmen of the Aosta valley traditionally used the term “l’Artisanà” to refer to the shop in the centre of Aosta where the products displayed during the Sant’Orso Craft Fair were taken for sale once the fair was over. Thus, the Institut Valdôtain de l’Artisanat de Tradition has decided to make this name its communication brand, combining the cultural and commercial sectors of its activity.
Today there are four Artisanà boutiques spread all over the region, providing an original showcase for a living, evolving craft industry rooted in tradition.
The boutiques de L’Artisanà offer tourists and aficionados the chance to take home an authentic piece of the Aosta Valley: objects crafted in wood, earthenware and wrought iron, as well as textiles and ceramics, testifying to the traditions of our region that stretch back thousands of years.

The boutique in Courmayeur

The pearl of the Alps: this is the well-deserved name given to Courmayeur for the extraordinarily beautiful landscape that surrounds it and the magnificent scenario offered by the Mont Blanc chain that looks down over it. This well-known location is home to the largest of the L’Artisanà boutiques, which can be found in the town centre below Piazza Abbé Henry (where the church stands), and is accessible via the steps that link Via Roma with the street leading to Piazzale Monte Bianco. This boutique boasts interesting architecture inside, divided into a number of different rooms and levels adding up to a total of around 200 square metres. It offers a rich variety of objects from the finest craft tradition.
Inside the Boutique, visitors will find the Galleria dell’ARTigianato, where unique local craft items are displayed and sold. These products, demonstrating impressive manual and creative skills, are crafted in a variety of expressive styles that have their roots in the local craft tradition.

Opening times:

July and August
From Monday to Sunday 10-13 / 14.30-19.30
Closed on Monday 5th July.

September
From Wednesday to Sunday 10-12.30 / 15-19
Closed from 27 to 30 September.

October
Saturday and Sunday 10.30-12.30 / 15-19

November
Monday 1 and 2 November 10.30-12.30 / 15-19

Opening times are subject to variations: we advice to verify them before the visit (see the “Contacts” area).

Situated in Piazza Petigax, a short distance from the Valdois Evangelical church, in the Middle Ages this building belonged to the Malluquin family, for whom evidence exists in Courmayeur since the 13th century.
The dwelling is first mentioned in 1351 in a deed of consignment of the castles: at the time of the General Audiences, when the Count of Savoy met feudal lords and the population, the local owners of fortified dwellings consigned their homes to the count’s emissaries, who took custody of them for the entire period in which they remained in the valley, establishing a small garrison. This ritual, known as the “redditio castrorum” (literally the “consignment of the castles”) was also performed by “Hugonetus Maluquini de Curia Majori”, Hugonet Malluquin of Courmayeur.
In the 14th century, the tower became property of the D’Avise family, and remained to them until the 18th century.
Currently the tower is seat of exhibitions of various kind.
The square-plan building consists of seven low storeys divided by wood floors. The entrance to the ground floor is recent, while the original entrance on the opposite side, approximately eight metres above the ground, has an architrave above it with a round discharging arch.

Standing in the centre of the Entrèves village, this typical country fortified house from the 14th century (1351), was designated as an aristocratic residence, more for the tourist attraction of the location, than for its original characteristics.
In 1711 it was bought by the nobles Passerin, whose descendants are still the owners to this day, and who, a few decades ago, undertook external and internal works to save it from ruin.
The characteristic gothic ogee windows result from a restauration work.
The spiral staircase leads to the floors, ogee arches of some doors and a good collection of objets d’art are appreciable.
The fortified house is inhabited during the summer period.

In 1964 Entrèves, Courmayeur’s hamlet, established its own parish, including the parish church and the chapel of the same name village, as well as the chapels of San Grato in La Palud, of Meyen, Planpincieux and of Notre-Dame in Pont.

Saint Margaret chapel
The old, little church dedicated to patron saint of Entrèves (celebrated on July 20th), is located behind the Passerin d’Entrèves fortified house. It was mentioned as early as the 19th July 1567 in the bishop’s visit by Monsignor Ferragata. Only the wooden, seventeenth-century altar remains inside with a central canvas depicting the Virgin with Child, Saint Margaret and Saint Anthony.

Saint Margaret parish church
Built between 1965 and 1967 basing on a project by architect Cosmacini, inside its hosts a nineteenth-century crucifix from the parish church in Courmayeur.

The current parish church building dates back to the first half of the eighteenth century.
The church has a basilican plan with three naves covered by cross vaults and marked by six squared pillars with pilasters. The narrow choir is a straight apse. To the north, you can see the slope of the bell-tower foundation enclosed in the walls. The latter, which should date back to the XIV century, has an octagonal spire and a westerly facade with a tondo depicting a cross.
There is an interesting main altar, which dates back to the XVIII century, in black marble. Also worth noting, a canvas representing the martyr St. Sebastian, from the XVIII century, a single votive offering of a canvas, dated 1704, which takes its inspiration from the invasion of French troupes of Valle d’Aosta, an invasion that saved the village of Courmayeur.
The chapel to the left of the choir has an inscription that recalls Prince Umberto of Savoy and Princess Maria José’s honeymoon in Courmayeur in 1930.
Outside, in the square, the church presents a double flight of stairs with a pulpit. A hollow created using ice-axes hosts the statue of the priest, mountaineer and historian, Abbot Joseph-Marie Henry.

This church is located on the road to Val Veny, with a Brenva glacier backdrop. It was once dedicated to Vierge du Terrier and today to Notre-Dame de la Guérison. The sanctuary was built in 1792, on a stone mass, called a “berrier” in Patois, meaning rock or stone. In 1816 the small sanctuary was knocked by the relentless advancement of the Brenva glacier: only the statue of the Madonna remained intact, something that was considered miraculous.

The current sanctuary was rebuilt in 1867 and consecrated the following year. The supernatural fame of the Virgin Mary has made this sanctuary a place of pilgrimage. Its inside walls are completely covered in crutches, votive offerings and gifts, left here by believers in her miracles.

The Alpine Guides of Courmayeur together with the faithful, celebrate the beginning of the summer season on 2nd July. On that occasion, the procession on foot also takes place, starting from the goat bridge.
Furthermore, on 8th September, the faithful arrive at the sanctuary on a pilgrimage starting from various locations in the area.

Located in the Petigax Square beside the Malluquin tower, the façade is orned by a buffered, mullioned windowand some little stone arches.

“Harmonie des glaciers”: with this expression the French daily newspaper Le Monde defined, on July 30th 1986, the concert given by Courmayeur-La Salle’s music band on top of the Mont Blanc in order to solemnize the conquest of the Alps giant. As a matter of fact, everything seems to unite this music band to the mountains that surround its site. Born in 1865 out of the will of Mister Bertolini, at the time owner of the Hôtel Royal, the Band adopted the emblematic name of “Fanfare des Guides” and for generations the strongest mountain dwellers of Courmayeur did alternate in its ranks, finding the time, between one climb of the massif and the other, to blow an instrument to gladden the feasts of the villages or to entertain the tourists who, more and more numerous, came to Courmayeur. From the about fifteen performers who used to make up the original staff of the band, they passed to the forty five instrument players of the present day, whose level of constant artistic growth was strengthened by the merger operated, in 1966, with another glorious music band of the Valdigne: the one of La Salle. The present repertoire of the group ranges from the purely band-like style of the marches to the classic, the folklore, and the modern genre, and has enabled the music band of Courmayeur-La Salle to collect significant successes in Italy and abroad, culminated in repeated tours in Paris and in the concert which the group had in 1989 on the Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, ideally twinned with the Mont Blanc.

The folk group “Les Badochys” was officially formed in 1956, from a group of friends who were interested in preserving the old traditions and dances of Courmayeur: today it counts on about 50 people, including a large selection of very young dancers.
The origins of the costume are very ancient: the men’s elegant costume, in traditional black and red, was influenced by the uniform worn by the napoleonic armies when crossing Aosta Valley. The women’s costume is the one which was worn on festive occasions: heavy hand woven wool, hand-made lace, gaily coloured silk for the aprons and precious jewels. The dances are still those that animated the village weddings and festivals. On these occasions the halberd, a three pointed iron stick with the emblem of Courmayeur on it, is always present: this is the stick on which the women of the group, on their wedding day, hang the coloured ribbon that they wear around their waist.

The giant, obviously, is Gargantua that, after having distributed various parts of his body after his death, left a tooth to Valle d’Aosta: to fix amongst the glaciers of the Monte Bianco. The sharp point stands out in the sky and its characteristic outline makes it one of the most famous peaks. What people don’t know is that numerous evil spirits are imprisoned in that powerful fortress: all those that, in ancient days, raged in Valle d’Aosta. To rid the area of these evil spirits was a wizard, who came from far away, maybe from the East. Moved by the inhabitant’s fear of the spirit’s nasty tricks, he climbed the entire valley, pronouncing mysterious words. Attracted by the irresistible chants, the spirits flocked down the mountainside like crows from the glades and forests, from the rocky gorges and from the ponds, to join with the other elves in a tumultuous flight that obscured the sky. The wizard climbed up towards the upper valley. Docile, with a rumble stronger than thunder, the evil crowd followed him every step of the way to the giant prison that awaited them, in the Monte Bianco’s desert of ice. One by one the spirits entered, pulled by an invincible force: and the rocky door closed behind the last of the spirits. From then on the dangerous tower of the Dente del Gigante holds the impacts of the evil spirits that desperately try to break the spell of the wizard in order to get out, but to no avail.

Based on: “Il fiore del leggendario valdostano” (The Flower of the Legendary Valdostan) by Tersilla Gatto Chanu Edizioni Emme/Torino (publishers)

Driven out by San Bernardo from the mountain passes of Valle d’Aosta, the devils that once lived their went to Mont Maudit; but, once in awhile, they would leave the cursed mountain to carry out wild rackets in Val Veny, inviting other witches and all kinds of evil spirits. They turned the entire valley upside down, stepping on sown fields and destroying harvests. The canonry and high priests, in reply to the people’s pleas, carried out useless exorcisms: after every exorcism, the wicked forces seemed to become bolder and nobody knew why.
But, one day, a devil that retired only at dawn because he hurt himself during “seun-goga” (1), spoke to a farmer and let slip that the priests called to chase the evil spirits away had failed because their hearts were not pure. The community, having met to examine the situation after these new revelations, decided to search for a more worthy religious man, but not at the higher levels, at the lower levels of the ecclesiastical scale instead. They chose a humble monk from the convent of San Francesco di Aosta. The inhabitants went through with what they had decided that the prior - who would’ve definitely chosen someone more worthy and illustrious than the humble monk - gave in with their requests and told the begging monk, who kept telling him that he was not suitable for the mission, to follow the delegation that had come for him. From the cursed mountain the devils saw the trembling monk make his way up. They tried to search for loopholes to escape from his pleas to leave the mountain, but to no avail. They accused him of having stolen a handful of grass for his shoes: but the monk had replaced that piece of grass that he had in his sandals; they then tried to accuse him of having taken a bunch of grapes from a vineyard: but the monk had paid for the grapes with a coin which he had left on the wall and they weren’t for him but for one of his sick brothers… Defeated by the pureness of the monk’s heart, the crestfallen demons were forced to return to hell. From that day on, the Val Veny was never again disturbed by evil spirits.

1 - word from the Valdostan dialect that means “witches’ sabbath”, in other words the meeting between devils and witches. The derivation from the word “synagogue” is evident.

Based on: “Il fiore del leggendario valdostano” (The Flower of the Legendary Valdostan) by Tersilla Gatto Chanu Edizioni Emme/Torino (publishers)

In the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, during the construction of the national road between Morgex and Pré Saint Didier, the men of La Thuile and those of Courmayeur worked side by side in corvées (each for four days, which turned into eight if one possessed a mule), but an ancestral rivalry continuously pushed them to compete against each other’s capacities. They finally decided to let two champions compete against each other in order to establish, based on the result of the match, which town was the strongest.
In those years a woman with extraordinary strength lived in La Thuile. Her nickname was Trifolla: the townspeople unanimously chose her to face the test.
At this point the townspeople of Courmayeur agreed that the match between one of their male champions and a representative of the weaker sex, whatever the outcome, would have embarassed them; therefore they decided to make one of their women compete against Trifolla. They trained her very hard even if she did not have the same build or strength as her opponent. The young girl, whose nickname was Mezola, was taught fencing and boxing in order to learn a few ploys that would allow her to beat her opponent.
The match took place at Pré Saint Didier. In the square of the church filled with people, the two women were placed five meters away from each other: the winner was the one who was able to throw the opponent to the ground. The losers would then have to treat fifty townspeople to a good lunch.
At the starting bell, Trifolla threw herself against her opponent, ready to grab her in a strong grip. But Mezola deftly placed her elbow underneath Trifolla’s chin and, tripping her up, threw her to the ground.
Not believing in what they saw, the fans of La Thuile claimed a new match: they lost a lunch, now they wanted to bet on a dinner; Mezola accepted. Once again her opponent threw herself on top of Mezola with all her giant weight, this time squeezing her between her arms. But, remembering all her lessons, Mezola moved with such agility that, rolling on the floor together with her opponent, she was able to land on top of her.
The show ended with a delicious dinner, satisfying both parties. And the records were established: strength for La Thuile and agility for Courmayeur.

Based on: “Il fiore del leggendario valdostano” (The Flower of the Legendary Valdostan) by Tersilla Gatto Chanu Edizioni Emme/Torino (publishers)

A very long time ago lovely fairies let their herd of chamois graze the pastures on the blooming banks of the lake where today the Miage glacier stretches out.
The devils, lurking in the dark crests of the Monte Bianco, spotted them and made them promises of love. The unwilling shepherd-girls immediately ran away whilst the evil, vexed spirits gave way to their pent up anger and shook the surrounding mountains, filling the valley with rocks.
Then, still not happy, pushed the glacier forward, covering the green pastures with a frozen layer of ice.

Based on: “Il fiore del leggendario valdostano” (The Flower of the Legendary Valdostan) by Tersilla Gatto Chanu Edizioni Emme/Torino (publishers)

A real knot of legends are tied around the Monte Bianco. Tradition has it that the glacier, all or part of it, is the eternal prison of evil spirits. The exorcisms of Cogne’s curate confined the “manteillon”, forcing them to tie themselves with ropes made of sand; the power of a wizard from the East imprisoned all the evil spirits of the Valle d’Aosta in the giant tower of Dente del Gigante (Giant’s Tooth); the pure innocence of a young monk banished the devils that infested the Val Veny in glaciers…and a mysterious traveller buried the evil spirits that inhabited the old Mont Maudit. To show his appreciation for the hospitality and shelter given to him by the inhabitants of the village at the foot of the mountain, the beggar promised the intervention of the Heavens in order to free the area from evil spirits. And the snow began to fall on the cursed mountain, quickly covering it with a pure white layer that imprisoned the evil spirits for ever. From then on the massif changed its name into the auspicious and peaceful Monte Bianco.

Based on the “Il fiore del leggendario valdostano” (The Flower of the Legendary Valdostan) by Tersilla Gatto Chanu Edizioni Emme/Torino (publishers)

The “tseallii” was the rite used, long ago, to accompany the widow or widower in his/her second wedding celebration: the youngsters of the town and nearby villages would meet at the hapless victim’s house and with pots, pans, cans, horns and rattles would start a frenzied serenade that would last a long time, even days…until the hapless victim, in order to make them stop, would pay everyone a round of drinks.
However, a widower from Courmayeur found a more economical way to get rid of the musicians. Having served under king Carlo Alberto as drum major, he kept his old instrument hanging on a wall. He took it off the hook, put it round his neck and, having recovered his youthful energy, went out on the threshold, beating the drum in full force: soon the constant drumming drowned out every other noise. One by one the musicians stopped playing and quietly slipped away.

Based on: “Il fiore del leggendario valdostano” (The Flower of the Legendary Valdostan) by Tersilla Gatto Chanu Edizioni Emme/Torino (publishers)

Materials, historical uniforms, mountain clothing and curious objects bear witness to more than 150 years of history of the fascinating profession of mountain guide.

Located inside the historic House of the Mountain Guides, it was built on wish of Luigi Amedeo of Savoy and inaugurated in 1929.

The museum is currently spread over two floors with an exhibition itinerary characterized by numerous thematic sections that retrace the various stages in the history of the profession of Alpine Guide.

The Museum possesses a conspicuous heritage consisting of documents, photographs, mountaineering equipment and memorabilia that belonged to the Alpine Guides of Courmayeur and preserves the precious booklets compiled at the end of each excursion which also contain exciting anecdotes.

A showcase is dedicated to the polar expedition of the Duke of Abruzzi in which famous mountain guides from Courmayeur took part.
Also on display is the pole used by the Courmayeur guides in their attempts to climb the south ridge of the Aiguille Noire du Peuterey.

“Lo Beuffon” è la maschera tipica e il simbolo del carnevale di Courmayeur.
Il costume, apparso all’inizio del Novecento a Dolonne, frazione di Courmayeur, riproduce un’interpretazione ironica di una divisa militare: giacca nera arricchita da tante medaglie, alamari dorati, perline colorate; pantaloni rossi con pompon, calzettoni bianchi e ghette rosse; una bassa tuba completamente rivestita di fiori e coccarde variopinte, arricchita da un pennacchio e da lunghi nastri multicolore. Proprio questi ultimi vennero aggiunti in onore di Umberto e Maria José di Savoia, che trascorsero a Courmayeur negli anni ’30 la loro luna di miele.
Alla vita il Beuffon porta un cinturone di pelle con dei campanelli; in mano un bastone che serve per aprire le sfilate dei carri allegorici. I beuffon, con il suono ritmato dei loro campanelli, hanno il compito di annunciare nelle frazioni e nel capoluogo di Courmayeur l’arrivo del Carnevale, mentre il pomeriggio del martedì grasso aprono la sfilata dei carri insieme alla banda musicale. Partecipano inoltre, su invito, a diverse manifestazioni a Courmayeur e in Valle d’Aosta portando con i loro colori e con il suono vivace delle loro campane, allegria e aria di festa.

Red and black, the colors of the flag of the Valle d'Aosta region, also distinguish the typical costume of Courmayeur.

The female costume is enriched at the neck and wrists by a thickly pleated, starched high lace raised at the nape of the neck. It is inspired by the clothes that women wore on festive occasions: heavy home-woven wool, colorful silks for the aprons, an open-fronted bolero and traditional jewels, a beaded necklace and a black velvet necklace with a heart and a gold cross.
The men's costume, rigorous and elegant, takes inspiration from the Napoleonic uniforms passing through the Aosta Valley in 1800.