Top 17 Castles around Roisan

Seen only from the outside, very very beautiful!

Quart Castle is currently (January 2025) undergoing conservation work. The work should be completed by summer 2025.

Travelling along the Via Francigena from Aosta to Nus, just before Quart you come across this Castle built on a hill, an enchanting and solitary place.

The Torre dei Balivi, also known as Tour du bailliage, is one of Aosta's medieval architectural treasures. The tower, also known as Tour Cornière in French, was mentioned as early as 1192. In the 12th century it became the property of the local noble family De Palais (or De Palacio), who used it for their own purposes. Later, in the 13th century, it was transferred to the Count of Savoy and served as the seat of the bailiff (in old French, Bailly). The tower was expanded and remodeled in the 15th and 16th centuries, with new parts added to meet growing needs. In the 17th century it was used as a prison and courthouse. Since 2014, the tower has housed the Istituto Musicale Pareggiato della Valle d'Aosta.

The Aymavilles castle, located on a moraine hill and surrounded by meadows and vineyards, dominates the course of the Dora Baltea and the strategic and commercial route that led to the Alpine passes including the Piccolo San Bernardo. Its history is very ancient, in a papal bull of 1207 it appears as a simple tower or stronghold belonging to the assets of the canons of Saint Gilles. This fortification subsequently underwent numerous transformations thanks to the illustrious owners who followed one another over time, starting from 1360, when the Savoys enfeoffed the jurisdiction to Aimone di Challant. The castle is easily recognizable for its original but elegant structure characterized by eighteenth-century stuccoes, loggias and coats of arms. The exterior is refined by the presence of a vast park with a fountain, from which you can enjoy a spectacular view of the entire valley floor.

A unique castle, its exterior reflects medieval and Baroque periods, the result of the architectural initiatives of various members of the Challant family, who over the centuries adapted the building to the needs and tastes of the time. Aymavilles Castle is located in the municipality of the same name in the Aosta Valley, on a hill surrounded by vineyards along the road to Cogne. The castle underwent a long and complex restoration project, beginning in 2000, involving a wide range of professionals in the design, historical studies and research, archaeological investigations, and restoration. The restoration involved both the architectural structure and the interior decorations, highlighting the unique features of the various construction campaigns and numerous alterations that occurred over the centuries. Numerous anecdotes, surprises, and curiosities emerged from the past during archival research and the ongoing restoration, all of which are now visible during the tour. History The first mention of the castle dates back to May 1207. The castle began to undergo significant transformations starting in the 14th century, with the passage of the Challants, an important noble family from the Aosta Valley. During the 15th century, the castle was enriched with four corner towers, a double wall, and the construction of the top floor. A major construction campaign dates back to the time of Joseph-Félix de Challant when, between 1713 and 1728, the spaces between the four corner towers were embellished with loggias, decorated with elegant stucco elements, while the interior of the residence was significantly transformed and made more comfortable. The creation of the terraced park helped give the castle the appearance of a modern stately residence surrounded by greenery, completely losing that of a medieval defensive fortress. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, following several changes of ownership, the castle underwent numerous internal renovations, initially as a museum by Vittorio Cacherano della Rocca, the last descendant of the Challant family, and later as a summer residence for Piedmontese and Ligurian families. In 1970, the castle became part of the property of the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley. The castle's green space extends over terraces sloping down towards the village and, with its circular promontory shape, flanks the surrounding hills used for vineyards. In spring and summer, it hosts events and concerts. The castle also includes the outbuildings, once used for agricultural purposes, and the stables, the latter now used as a ticket office. The Visit The Museum Tour The guided tour and multimedia installations allow visitors to discover the castle's history through the key phases of its transformation, linked to the various families who have lived there. The museum tour unfolds over four levels: Level I – The history of the families who have lived in the castle: on the ground floor, the rooms illustrate the events of the Challant and Bombrini families, the last owners of the castle before it was purchased by the Autonomous Region of Valle d'Aosta. Level II – Nineteenth-century collecting, from Vittorio Cacherano della Rocca Challant to the collection of the Accademia di Sant'Anselmo: on the first floor, the large hall represents the junction between the castle's history and the birth of the collection of the Aosta Valley cultural association in the 19th century, to which all the rooms in this section are dedicated. Level III – The rooms of Madama Giovane and the collection of the Accademia di Sant'Anselmo: the exhibition coexists with testimonies of daily life in the castle in the 19th century. Level IV – The evolutionary phases of the castle and the 15th-century wooden ceiling: the attic, integrated with the still visible architectural remains, illustrates the building's transformations over the course of its history. of the centuries with the support of multimedia technologies.

History The castle stands in the Lalex area, on a promontory overlooking the Aosta plain above the state road to Mont Blanc, just beyond the crossroads for Cogne. Built in 1710 by Giovanni Francesco Ferrod of Arvier on the remains of a strong house from 1242, after various changes of ownership it was purchased in 1869 by the King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele II, who renovated it and used it as a residence during his hunting trips in the Aosta Valley. The royal castle of Sarre, which became part of His Majesty's private heritage, then became the headquarters used by the king of Italy for his expeditions in the valleys of Cogne, Rhêmes and Valsavarenche. To host the first king of Italy, the residence underwent some modifications, including the raising of the tower and the construction of a new stable. Inside, the rooms were completely renovated and modernized. The conservator of the Royal Palace of Milan was specifically entrusted with the furnishings, which he arranged by transferring the furnishings from other royal residences. Vittorio Emanuele's successor, Umberto I (1844-1900), also assigned the Alpine castle to uses linked to hunting. In the last years of his reign, Umberto I paid particular attention to the residence of Sarre, whose internal renovation he promoted. The works carried out on that occasion include the important decorative campaigns of the monumental environments, decorated with ibex and chamois trophies. The castle was inhabited as a holiday by Queen Maria José even in the years following the monarchy. In 1989 the Valle d´Aosta Region purchased the complex to restore it. The castle, which appears as a longitudinal body with a square tower in the centre, can be considered a museum of the Savoy presence in the Aosta Valley. Visit The visit itinerary unfolds on three floors: the ground floor is set up as a museum and introduces a guided tour of the upper floors; some rooms are dedicated to the hunting theme and illustrate the territory, the management methods and the technical specificities of real hunts. the first floor, which still retains the furnishings and the appearance it took on in the second half of the 19th century, recalls the residential dimension of the Umbertine phase of the castle; the rooms are presented, with some exceptions, with the furniture documented by the 1890 inventory and with the textile furnishings described by the same inventory and reproduced on the basis of some original samples preserved in the State Archives of Turin. on the second floor, the exhibition presents a chronological setting linked to the members of the Savoy dynasty who lived in the castle from the beginning of the twentieth century to the post-World War II period.

It looks like the fairy castle. Always particular...