Verrès Castle

About

Verrès Castle (Italian: Castello di Verrès, French: Château de Verrès) is a fortified 14th-century castle in Verrès, in the lower Aosta Valley, in north-western Italy. It has been called one of the most impressive buildings from the Middle Ages in the area. Built as a military fortress by Yblet de Challant in the fourteenth century, it was one of the first examples of a castle constructed as a single structure rather than as a series of buildings enclosed in a circuit wall. The castle stands on a rocky promontory on the opposite side of the Dora Baltea from Issogne Castle. The castle dominates the town of Verrès and the access to the Val d'Ayas. From the outside it looks like an austere cube, thirty metres long on each side and practically free of decorative elements.

The earliest documents attesting the existence of a castle at Verrès (in the possession of the De Verretio family) date to 1287. At that time, control of the area was contested between the Bishop of Aosta and some noble families which were vassals of the Counts of Savoy : the De Turrilia, De Arnado, and De Verretio. The De Verretio in particular had harsh disagreements with the prelate over the years, which culminated in the episcopal casaforte in Issogne in 1333.

Around the middle of the fourteenth century, the De Verretio became extinct without leaving any possible heirs, so their property came into the possession of the counts of Savoy, who granted it to Yblet de Challant in 1372 as a reward for diverse duties discharged in their service.

Yblet entirely rebuilt the castle, producing a fortress that was practically impenetrable and distinct from most of the contemporary castles of the region which consisted of a number of buildings surrounded by a circuit wall.

An inscription in Latin on the architrave of the first gate as one approaches from the plain records the completion of Yblet's work in 1390:

MCCCLXXXX Magnific(us) D(omi)nus Eball(us) D(omi)nus Challandi Montioveti, etc. edificare fecit hoc castrum viventibus egregiis viris Francisco de Challand D(omi)nus de Bossonens et Castellionis et Joh(ann)e de Challand D(omi)no de Cossona ei(us) filiis.

Translation: In 1390 the magnific[ent] L[or]d Ebal, L[or]d of Challant, Montjovet, etc. had this castle built when two excellent men were living: François de Challant, L[or]d of Bossonnens and Châtillon, and Jean de Challant, Lord of Cossonay - his sons

At the death of Yblet in 1409, the castle and his other possessions passed to his son François de Challant, who received the title of first Count of Challant from Amadeus VIII the Duke of Savoy on 15 August 1424. Verrès remained one of his most important properties, but he did not alter the castle in any substantial way.

François died in 1442 without male heirs and left his property to his daughters Marguerite and Catherine. Verrès castle thus became the centre of an inheritance dispute between Catherine who claimed it for herself under her father's will and some of her male cousins, including Jacques de Challant who contested the will on the basis of the Salic law, which did not permit succession in the female line.

Verrès became one of the strongholds of Catherine and her husband Pierre Sarriod d'Introd during this conflict with Jacques. Legend has it that, on Trinity Sunday 1449 Catherine and Pierre left the castle and went down to the town square, where they danced with the youth of the town. This noticeably increased the populace's support for Catherine and is reenacted annually in the historic carnival of Verrès.

In 1456, after the death of her husband in an ambush, Catherine was forced to surrender herself and her property, including the estate and castle of Verrès, which passed to Jacques de Challant who became the second count of Challant.

The castle followed the vicissitudes of the descendants of Jacques thereafter, passing first to his son Louis, then to his nephew Philibert and then to Philibert's son René, who restored the more comfortable castle at Issogne and made that his residence.

Since its construction by Yblet about a hundred and fifty years earlier, the castle had not received any particular renovations or maintenance work. In 1536, René renovated the fortress to take account of the appearance of firearms, with the help of the Spanish captain Pietro de Valle, a famous military architect. He had the base of the cubic structure surrounded by a circuit wall with counterforts and polygonal turrets, adapted to cope with cannons and equipped with pieces of artillery brought from his fief of Valangin in Switzerland. René must also be responsible for the current vestibule, accessed by a drawbridge, for new windows and for new gates with Moorish arches.

The construction work is recorded on a stone inscription above the entrance to the vestibule, accompanied by the arms of René de Challant (on the left of the text) and those of his second wife Mencia de Braganza (on the right):

Arcem per excellentissimum Ebailum de Challant editam illustris Renatus Challandi comes de Baufremont, Viriaci Magni, Ama Ville et Collogniaci, baro. castellionis S. Marcelli, Yssognie, Valangini, Montisalti, Grane, Verrecii, Usselli etc. dominus ordinis miles ac marescallus Sabaudie. intus decorauit forasque structuris bellicis (muniu)it. anno Xpi. 1536.

- Translation: The illustrious René de Challant, Count of Beaufremont, Virieu-le-Grand, Aymavilles and Coligny, Lord of the castles of Saint-Marcel, Issogne, Valangin, Montalto Dora, Graines, Verrès, Ussel etc., Lord Knight of the Order and Marshal of Savoy decorated inside this citadel built by the most excellent Ybalt de Challant and (fortif)ied the exterior with military structures. In the 1536th year of Christ.

Decline and recovery in the nineteenth century

At Rene de Challant's death without male heirs in 1565, his property passed to his son-in-law Giovanni Federico Madruzzo who was married to his daughter Isabel, beginning a long legal conflict with other male members of the Challant family, once again based on the Salic law, under which Isabel could not inherit her father's property.

Therefore, the House of Savoy took direct control of Verrès castle, turning it into a look out and military garrison, but in 1661 Duke Charles Emmanuel II had the armaments of the castle dismantled and transferred (along with those of Saint-Germain Castle ) to Fort Bard, which was in a more strategic position for control of the Aosta Valley. Verrès was abandoned.

In 1696, the legal dispute between the heirs of Isabel de Challant and the Challant family finally came to an end and the castle returned to the Challant family. The castle remained their property until the extinction of their house in the nineteenth century, but it was no longer inhabited and fell into ruin. The strong exterior walls held up well, but the wooden roof was removed as punishment for not paying taxes, leaving the top floor exposed to the elements.