Saint-Pierre Castle

Introduction

The castle of Saint-Pierre stands on a rocky spur dominating the village, overlooking the village and the church, with its beautiful Romanesque bell tower, and facing the castle of Sarriod de la Tour. Although small in size, Saint-Pierre presents all the constituent elements of the primitive Valdostan castle type, with its walls, tower and residential nucleus. And in this small castle perched on a rocky outcrop we also find a simple but incisive example of how the succession of small interventions over time can almost radically change the appearance of an architectural organism: from the severe 'castrum' of 1408, passing through the 'maison de delices' seen by de Tillier to the 'Walt Disney-style mess' described in 1975 by Zanotto.

Description

 Introduction

 Architectural description

When John of Saint-Pierre was invested with part of the fief and half of the castle in 1408, it was described in these words:
 "medietatem castri Sancti Petri Castri Argentei, in qua medietatem est una turris vocata antiturris una domus sita iuxta primam portam dicti castri qui appellatur domus de porta, et una sala quae attingit secundam ianuam dicti castri unam cum curte in medio eorundam cum eorum appendentiis et pertinentiis universi"
From this brief description, we can recognise, in the small castle of Saint-Pierre, all the constituent elements of the primitive typology of the Valdostan castle. The small size of the rocky outcrop forced the builders to compress the buildings around a small courtyard, but the constituent elements of the castle are all there and we can easily recognise them in the Latin words of the description: first of all, we find, near the entrance gate to the castle, a tower with a residential function, followed by a second entrance and a hall, all interspersed with a small courtyard.
After 1603, Pietro Filiberto Roncas, Marquis of Caselle, the owner of the castle, promoted extension and embellishment work on the castle, of which de Tillier gives us this enthusiastic description
"une maison de delices, où tout ce qu'il y avoit de personnes de condition et de merite, tant étrangers que du duché, etoint reçus et festoyés de son vivant, avec toute la courtoisie qu'on pouvoit attendre d'un seigneur aussi riche et aussi genereux qu'il estoit. Les appartaments, les peintures et les meubles de cette maison, tout y etoit magnifique et bien ordonne"
The refined abode of a rich and generous lord, therefore, with flats, paintings and magnificent furniture, a true "house of delights" where every guest who was a person of a certain status and good merit, foreigner or from the duchy, was welcomed and courteously celebrated by the inhabitants of the castle.
It was on this structure, reworked with respect to the original layout but still consistent with the logic of the castle, admired by John Ruskin, who left sketches and a description of it, that the restoration promoted by Emanuele Bollati was carried out.
He acquired the castle in 1873 and commissioned architect Camillo Boggio to carry out an intervention that distorted the castle in its essence.
The most evident aspect of this restoration is in fact the four cylindrical hanging turrets arranged on the four corners of the keep. Indeed, such a solution is also present in the castle of Pilate in Nus, but here in Saint-Pierre, the elevated position of the castle, combined with the peculiarity of the four towers and the deep hanging arches supporting the walkway, really makes us think, at least for a moment, that we are in front of Cinderella's or King Arthur's castle.
Although this transformation has been the subject of fierce criticism in the architectural field (for having irreparably tampered with the existing structure), it must be acknowledged that the castle, perhaps because of its particular fairy-tale appearance, has met with popular approval. It has often been used as an icon of the Aosta Valley, not least because the combination of the castle with the church below makes for a very evocative setting.

 Historical background

The castle and the village of Saint-Pierre take their name from the de Sancto Petro family; as early as 1191, the brothers de castro Sancto Petro appear among the witnesses in the charter of franchises, but as was often the case at the time, the castle was held in coignory, so much so that in 1287 Giacomo di Quart is reported to be enfeoffed half of the castle, together with his two brothers Guglielmo and Daniseto de Sancto Petro.
 The cosignoria tends to become more and more intricate, a real tangle of names and dates; let us just remember that in 1321 Ugoneto de Sancto Petro sold a portion of the fiefdom to the Count of Savoy, while in 1351 the portion of the fiefdom owned by the Gontards had been reduced to manus domini and then purchased by Enrico di Quart in 1355. Then in 1405 Ibleto di Challant in his last will and testament destined the castle of Saint-Pierre to his son Giovanni; in 1408 Giovanni di Saint-Pierre was invested with a part of the fief and half of the castle, while in the redditio castrorum of 1409 the castle was handed over to Ibleto di Challant and the stronghold that belonged to it to Beatrice, widow of Villeto di Morgex and niece of Giovanni di Saint-Pierre. The Saint-Pierre themselves handed over the castle in the hearings of 1430.
 The last male representative of the Saint-Pierre family died, leaving his daughter, who inherited the family properties and by marriage in 1507 passed them on to her husband Jean Vulliet, first secretary of state to Duke Charles II.
 On 13 March 1603, the Vulliet family ceded the castle to Pietro Leonardo Roncas, whose son was that Pietro Filiberto Roncas, Marquis of Caselle, who promoted those extensions to which de Tillier has given us testimony.
 On the death of Pietro Filiberto, almost in contrast to the riches that he had bestowed on the castle during his lifetime, it fell into de facto abandonment, being entrusted to foreign families who did not inhabit it or take care of its upkeep.
 In 1798 the castle of Saint-Pierre was acquired by the Gerbore family and then, in 1873, by Emanuele Bollati. It was before this date that John Ruskin saw the castle of Saint-Pierre. John Ruskin (1819-1900) is undoubtedly a complex character with a sensitive and multifaceted personality; an aesthete and art critic, a leading exponent of neo-Gothic thought, he was fascinated, like any perfect romantic, by the theme of ruin and the sublime, which transcended into a passionate hatred of progress and a strong nostalgia for the past.
 Emanuele Bollati initiated the project by Camillo Boggio, who carried out renovations and alterations to the existing structures. The intervention distorted the building to meet the client's aesthetic requirements at the expense of the historical memory of the building.
 Today, the castle, owned by the municipality of Saint-Pierre, is home to the Museum of Natural Sciences.

 The Regional Museum of Natural Sciences

Since 1975, the castle of Saint-Pierre has housed the Natural History Museum of the 'Société de la Flore Valdôtaine', founded in 1905 and becoming the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences in 1985.
 The museum is divided into nine rooms, arranged in the rooms of the Saint-Pierre castle, in which visitors can learn about the many aspects of the natural environment in the Aosta Valley.
 The first room, which occupies the former stables of the castle, is dedicated to the mineralogical and geological aspects of the regional territory.
 The second room deals with the climatic and glaciological aspects of the valley.
 The third room exhibits the osteological collection, i.e. concerning the bones, of the Gran Paradiso National Park, relating to ibexes.
 In the fourth and fifth rooms, interest is shifted to the flora of the Aosta Valley, its origins, its relationship with the environment and then to the typical vegetation of the Aosta Valley (woods, shrublands, grasslands).
 On the upper floor are the other rooms; in the sixth room, four typical Aosta Valley environments have been reconstructed, each presenting characteristic specimens of the flora and fauna.
 The seventh room is dedicated to ornithological fauna, with an analysis of biological and systematic aspects.
 The eighth room deals with large and small mammals, while the ninth room houses insects and exhibits of various orders.

Information

 Visiting hours:
 Opening hours    Weekdays    Sundays and public holidays    Closing day
 From 01/04 to 30/09    09.00-19.00    09.00-19.00    Always open
 Organised groups can book by calling the number below.
 
 Entrance fee:    3€
 Information:    0165/903485