Saint-Marcel Castle is not far from Fénis Castle but it is historically bound to the Challant Family that controlled Valle d’Aosta during the Middle Ages and modern period. This classic castle-cum-rural residence is deemed to be one of the region’s most mysterious buildings: many people claim to have heard strange voices coming from the castle walls. Legend tells that a ghost haunts the building … so if you want to put your courage to the test step forward!

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Castello di Saint-Marcel

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Il castello di Pilato (in francese Château de Pilate) si trova lungo l'antica via Francigena nel borgo di Nus, una delle più antiche signorie feudali della Valle d'Aosta. Si tratta di una casaforte a pianta rettangolare fatta costruire dai Signori di Nus (Seigneurs de Nus) in epoca feudale.
L'architettura
Dell'edificio che si componeva di quattro piani restano solo le due torrette angolari pensili e tre degli spessi muri perimetrali in pietra nuda.
Il muro meridionale mancante, sul quale si apriva il portone d'ingresso, è stato demolito per ampliare la strada tra la fine del XIX e l'inizio del XX secolo, e con esso sono andare perdute anche le torrette che dovevano difendere l'accesso e gli angoli; il muro fu in seguito ricostruito, ma venne nuovamente distrutto durante un incidente automobilistico negli anni sessanta. Sono presenti sporadici abbellimenti decorativi, come lo stipite lavorato della finestra a crociera, sul muro occidentale, probabilmente di epoca più tarda.

Il restauro, effettuato in anni recenti, ha portato alla costruzione ex novo di alcuni elementi architettonici scomparsi, in un'ottica di conservazione del sito, come la copertura in vetro e acciaio del tetto e la scala in acciaio celata da una struttura lignea sul lato sud dell'edificio, dove un tempo sorgeva la parete perimetrale oggi mancante. La scala, di libero accesso, permette di arrivare al camminamento di guardia e alle due torrette di guardia cilindriche, ottimamemente conservate. L'interno è stato corredato da numerosi pannelli informativi sul paese e le bellezze del territorio. Ancora visibile nel muro la collocazione di quello che era un ampio camino.

Castello di Pilato

Fénis Castle (Italian: Castello di Fénis, French: Château de Fénis) is an Italian medieval castle located in the town of Fénis. It is one of the most famous castles in Aosta Valley, and for its architecture and its many towers and battlemented walls has become one of the major tourist attractions of the region.Built by the noble exiled famille de Cabourné who live in England to this day without the accented E.
History
The castle first appears in a document in 1242 as a property of the Viscounts of Aosta, the Challant family [fr]. At that time it probably was a simple keep surrounded by walls. From 1320 to 1420, under the lordship of Aymon of Challant and of his son Boniface I of Challant, the castle was expanded to the actual appearance.

Under Aymon's lordship the castle got its pentagonal layout, the external boundary wall and many of the towers. In 1392 Boniface of Challant began a second building campaign to build the staircase and the balconies in the inner courtyard and the prison. He also commissioned Piedmontese painter Giacomo Jaquerio to paint frescoes on the chapel and on the inner courtyard. Under Boniface I the castle reached its greatest splendor: it was a rich court surrounded by a vegetable plot, a vineyard and a garden where the lord and his guests could relax.

The castle belonged to the lords of Challant until 1716, when Georges-François of Challant had to sell it to Count Baldassarre Castellar of Saluzzo Paesana in order to pay his debts, and for the castle was the beginning of a period of decline. It was turned into a rural dwelling and became a stable and a barn.

In 1895 architect Alfredo d'Andrade purchased it and started a restoration campaign to secure the damaged structures. In 1935 a second campaign by De Vecchi and Mesturino completed the restoration and gave the castle the current appearance. The rooms were also provided with wood period furniture.

The castle is today owned by the Autonomous Region Aosta Valley, which turned it into a museum.
Despite its impressive defensive structure, the castle is situated at the top of a small knoll and not of a promontory or another inaccessible and easily defensible place. In fact it was not built for military purposes, but to serve as a prestigious residence for the Challant family.

The inner courtyard, at the centre of the keep, shows a semi-circular stone staircase and wood balconies. At the top of the staircase a 15th-century fresco features Saint George killing the dragon, while the walls of the balconies are decorated with images of sages and prophets and proverbs in old French. The frescoes are attributed to a painter from the school of Jaquerio.

The interior of the castle is divided into three floors: on the ground floor it is possible to visit the weaponry, the kitchen, the woodshed and the storage tank to collect rainwater. On the first floor there were the rooms of the lords of the castle, the chapel with frescoes by Giacomo Jaquerio and his school and the court. The second floor, in the attic, was dedicated to the servant's quarter and is not visitable.

Fénis Castle

he castle is a set of buildings arranged within a fortified perimeter, which respects the natural contour of a difficult rocky slope.
The donjon standing on the highest point of the rock, the functional layout of individual buildings, the chapel and the winding passageways, are evidence of an early or Germanic fortified structure, although current architectural evidence point to more recent periods, as do the first narrative sources, which suggest its origins go back to the end of the 12th century (around 1185). After the death of Henry of Quart in 1377, the castle and fiefdom went to the Savoys, who sold it to Philibert Laschis in 1550, who in turn sold it almost immediately to the Balbis. In the 17th century, the castle belonged first to Count Nicholas Coardo and then to the Perrone of San Martino, who gave it the Municipality of Quart in 1800.


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Quart Castle

Cly is a castle in the Italian town of Saint-Denis, overlooking the Dora Baltea (French: Doire baltée) river, in Aosta Valley, northwest Italy. It belongs to the so-called primitive style of castle, consisting of a keep with a surrounding wall. The ruins rise from a bed of metamorphic rock, on the edge of a fault line which extends to the Castle of Quart.
History
Cly was first mentioned in a document from 1207, in which the "chapel sancti Mauricij (Saint Maurice) de castro Cliuo" is mentioned among the goods of the Vicarage of Saint-Gilles in Verrès, but the keep has been dated to 1027 using an analysis of the tree rings in its timbers (dendrochronology). Originally a fief held from the Counts of Savoy, in 1376 the direct ownership passed to the Duchy of Savoy, which installed a castellan to administer it for them until abandoned in 1550. The castle fell to ruins in the centuries that followed.

The castle today
Eventually the castle ruins became the property of the nearby town of Saint-Denis. The castle is visible atop the hill overlooking the town of Chambave The castle is open to guided tours only in July and August. In addition to Cly, there are about 150 medieval castles, towers and fortified houses in the Aosta Valley.

Cly castle

Il castello Jocteau, detto anche castello Duca degli Abruzzi o castello generale Cantore, è uno dei tre castelli valdostani costruiti nel XX secolo: gli altri due sono il castel Savoia a Gressoney e il castello Baron Gamba a Châtillon. Il castello, di proprietà del demanio militare e non visitabile, ospita il comando della Scuola militare alpina di Aosta e un piccolo museo dell'alpinismo.
Territorio
Il castello si trova a 654 m s.l.m. sulla collina di Beauregard a nord-est di Aosta e gode del panorama sulle cime del monte Emilius e della Becca di Nona. In posizione rialzata rispetto ad Aosta, il castello è a circa cento metri dall'antico alveo glaciale, per millenni catenaccio (in francese e in patois valdostano verrou) tra le valli del Gran San Bernardo e del Buthier. Le colline intorno al castello non raggiungono i 900 m di altezza e sono coperte di vigneti. Al limitare nord della proprietà militare, in un prato posto su di un rilievo tondeggiante, si conservano tracce di un tumulo funerario dell'età del ferro, probabilmente appartenuto ad un capo dei Salassi.
Il castello si trova in via Scuola Militare Alpina 17, proseguimento di via Duca degli Abruzzi, ed è raggiungibile dalla strada che da Aosta, attraversando il ponte sul Buthier nei pressi dell'arco di Augusto, porta all'ospedale Beauregard; proseguendo sulla stessa strada lungo la collina si raggiunge in pochi minuti l'entrata dal parco.

Castello Jocteau 

Castello Tramontano is a 16th century fortification in Matera.

History
The castle is situated on a hill, called the lapel hill, above the historical centre of Matera.

In Aragonese style, the castle, with a central male and two lower side towers, one and the other round, scalloped and equipped with loops, was built from 1501 by Giovanni Carlo Tramontano, Count of Matera. The new king of Naples, Ferdinand II, had promised the Materrani not to give the city to any more feudal lords, after that this had already freed itself several times from the feudal yoke paying various ransoms in order to remain free city to autonomous regiment, that is directly dependent on the Crown. Instead the Count sets, which boasted claims against the royal treasury, asked and obtained the Matera County in 1496.

The Count soon became enfeebled to the materani because with the passage of time he was replenished with debts, in order to cope with which he taxed the population with heavy taxes. Thus began the construction of the castle, which was situated on a hill dominating the city, outside the city walls, with the purpose of "feudal" control of the surrounding lands rather than defense of the city itself.

It seems that then the construction should have included other defensive towers, one of which was found under the central Piazza Vittorio Veneto in Matera together with other underground environments. For the construction of the castle 25,000 ducats were spent and this weighed even more on the population.

It was thus that some citizens, tired of the continuous abuses, gathered hidden behind a rock, which since then was called "u pizzon' du mal consigghj", that is "the stone of bad council", and organized the assassination of the "tyrant" set. On December 29, 1514, the count, who had just left the Cathedral, was assassinated in a side street of the same, which was later eloquently called "Way of ransom".

The castle thus remained unfinished. Since 2008, he has been interested, together with the surrounding park, in restoration works still in progress. Some of these interventions are aimed at the recovery of the moat with the restoration of the tufa walls. The project is financed also thanks to the funds of the Game of the Lotto.

Castello Tramontano

The castle stands on a promontory in Lalex, which overlooks the Aosta flatland above the national road for Mont Blanc, immediately after the junction for Cogne.
Built in 1710 on the ruins of a fortress mentioned as early as 1242, having passed through various hands, the property was purchased by the King of Italy Victor Emanuel II, who renovated it and used it during hunting expeditions in Val d’Aosta.
The royal castle of Sarre, after becoming the private property of the King, was used as his headquarters for expeditions in the valleys of Cogne, Rhêmes and Valsavarenche.
Several modifications were made to the residence, in order to welcome the first king of Italy, including raising of the tower and construction of new stables. Inside, the rooms were completely reconstructed and modernised. The curator of the Royal Palace in Milan was charged with furnishing the residence, for which he transferred furniture from other royal residences.
Victor Emmanuel’s successor, Umberto I (1844-1900) also destined the alpine castle for hunting activities.
In the final years of his reign, Umberto I took a particular interest in the Sarre residence and commissioned the renovation of its interior. At that time, works included important decorations in monumental rooms, garnished with ibex and chamois trophies.
Queen Maria José also spent her holidays in the castle, even in the years following the monarchy.
In 1989 the Val d´Aosta regional authority purchased the estate to restore it. The castle has a longitudinal body with a square tower in the centre, and is a museum of the presence of the Savoy in Valle d’Aosta.

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Sarre Royal Castle

Aymavilles Castle stands in the centre of the village on a moraine.
The buildings four characteristic cylindrical towers were added to the existing central body by Aimone of Challant halfway through the 14th century. In around 1730, Baron Giuseppe Felice of Challant built the arcades between the towers and eliminated many defence features, giving the interior a Baroque appearance.

When the Challant family line came to an end, the castle had several owners until 1970, when it was purchased by the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley; it actually undergoes restoration works in order to be opened to the public.

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Aymavilles Castle

Located on a rocky crag in Tache, the unmistakeably fairy-tale Saint Pierre Castle is certainly unique. Its famous four side towers (added in the 19th century) give it an almost Disney-like appearance. It is one of the most ancient manors in the region. The early structure probably dates back to the 12th century, in that the famous Charter of Liberties (Carta delle Franchigie) of 1191 contains the names of the brothers “de castro Sancti Petri”, joint owners of part of the castle. Among its owners, worth mentioning is the name of Pietro Filiberto Roncas, who extended the castle and held numerous receptions inside it.

After this, in the 17th century, the castle underwent a number of modifications, and above all, changed owners several times until the present day, and is now the property of the Municipality of Saint Pierre, and has been used as the headquarters of the Regional Natural Science Museum.

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Saint-Pierre Castle

Sarriod de la Tour Castle is a castle in the town of Saint-Pierre by the Dora Baltea River, in Northwestern Italy's Aosta Valley. The original castle was typical of the style built between the 10th and 12th centuries, and was greatly expanded by Jean Sarriod in 1420 and his son, Antoine, in 1478. The north wing's ground floor features a wooden-ceilinged "Hall of Heads", named for its decorative motifs.
History
The Sarriod de la Tour Castle was the family residence of the Sarriod family since its founding. The Sarriods were politically linked to the powerful Bard family in the County of Savoy. The oldest part of the castle included a chapel and square tower, or donjon, surrounded by the castle walls, typical of the Aosta Valley 10th- to 12th-century castles. In 1420 Jean Sarriod expanded upon the "turris Sariodorum", as the donjon was known. The "Hall of Heads", built in 1430, features 171 corbels of grotesques of mythological monsters and animals bearing coats of arms. In 1478 Jean's son, Antoine Sarriod de la Tour, refurbished the chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, by having painted the external frescoes of the Crucifix and Saint Christopher and caused to be built the small bell tower. The castle wall's circular and semi-circular towers were added sometime in the late 15th century, when a new entrance was created on the eastern side. In the 16th century a west-facing wing was added, then, in the 17th century, a north tower. The Sarriod family inhabited the castle until 1923. In that year the castle went to the Genoese Bensa family. Since 1970, it has been property of the autonomous Region Aosta Valley.

The castle today
There are about 150 medieval castles, tours and fortified houses in the Aosta Valley. The castle is visible from the National Road No. 26 which runs from Ivrea to the Little St Bernard Pass. Sarriod de la Tour is open to visitors year round.