Heritage: Saint-Nicolas

Probably only the crypt remains of the ancient 12th century building, that opens out under the presbytery of the current parish church, which is the fruit of a 17th century restoration intervention.
Apart from the main altar, four other altars are also visible, dedicated to the Rosary, to Saint Agatha, St. Joseph and to the Holy Cross, unfortunately victims of various thefts which deprived them of their original décor.
The 15th century belltower is noteworthy, its spire dates back to the 17th century.

Thanks to this ancient construction of the 18th century, carefully restored, it is possible to understand how rural environments were organised in peasant culture and visit the exhibition of the archive of the “Concours Cerlogne” (school competitions for works in “patois”, the Provençal dialect in Val d’Aosta) from 1963 to the present day.

The centre has a conference hall, a library specialised in Provençal dialectology and local Alpine history and holds the Sound Archives cassettes and microfilm of the “Concours Cerlogne”.

The centre is an ancient 18th-century construction, part of the village of Fossaz-Dessus and an example of a classic rural mountain house. It lies among other constructions and is on sloping terrain with three and a half storeys, with the axis parallel to the levels: this is a constant feature of the village’s architecture. The space is organised into a stable (bòou) on the ground floor, a kitchen (méisôn) and the bedroom (tsambra) on the first floor and the hay barn (pailler) on the top part of the building.

In 1986 the regional administration purchased the building and started reconstruction, modifying the layout of the rooms in the grange, to house the Centre, which opened on 12 November 1988. Architects Louis Bochet and Alberto Breuvé managed to safeguard the old structures, proposing a reconstruction that was functional, while respecting the traditional elements.

On site and by reservation it is possible to consult the library specialized in the Franco-Provençal language and Alpine ethnology and the archive of the Cerlogne concours (more than 4000 volumes: these are the works in patois, from 1962 to today, by the schools participating in the annual competition).

Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne was born in Cerlogne, a village of Saint-Nicolas in 1826. After working in Marseille as a chimney sweep, he was employed as cook at the Seminario Maggiore in Aosta, where his intelligence and creativity were noted and he was invited to study to take holy orders. Thus he became “Abbé Cerlogne”, author of numerous mostly poetic publications written in Provençal dialect (patois), and works defending and spreading this dialect, including the “Dictionnaire du patois valdôtain”. He died in 1910 in Saint-Nicolas, where his remains lie in a tomb behind the church façade.
The museum located in La Cure, near the parish church, presents works and several personal objects of this Aosta Valley poet, as well as works of vernacular poets and writers from the past. The devisor and curator of “Musée Cerlogne” was Renato Willien, writer, theater man and photographer, who on 16 October 1967 set up in the same museum the Centre for Provençal Studies, later moved to the village of Fossaz-Dessus, where it has its present seat.
A gallery for temporary exhibitions has been created in the ancient vaulted stable beneath the museum.

The Gerbore museum is located within the “Maison de la Tôr”, a historical building mentioned in a document from 1768, which hosts from time immemorial the bread oven and the dairy for the village families.
The exhibition “L’epoca dei Pionieri” (The age of pioneers), prepared by the “Fondation Joseph Gerbore” in the typical architectural backdrop, shows around fifty agricultural machines dating back to the 1950s. In addition to the interesting technical aspects, emphasis is placed on the social and economic impact caused by the arrival of the engine to the countryside (the revolution introduced by the mowing machine is the most emblematic example).