Neolithic, Roman, Medieval: Aosta city’s treasures

Background

Augusta Prætoria – Aosta – was founded by Augustus (hence the name) with 3000 soldiers in 25BC, following the defeat of the local Salassi tribes. James has written an article about the Salassi and the Roman conquest in his Tales from the Regions series here.

The city was founded as an imperial outpost, guarding the important trade routes over the Alps – the Great Saint Bernard into Helvetia to the north, and the Little Saint Bernard into Gaul to the west.

Built as a square created by four walls 2.75m thick at the base, the internal layout is a grid.  Each corner was topped by a tower; each wall contained a gate and a further tower either side of that.

📸 Joel Bellviure

Arriving from Rome and the plains

MTW hikers completing The Five Days of the Matterhorn follow a trail thousands of years old: in the vineyards of Nus (ad nonum lapidem – ‘at the ninth milestone’ – or nine miles from Augusta Praetoria) we pick up the Via Francigena, the medieval pilgrim trail which connected Canterbury to Rome.

In sight of the great Augustan arch, the trail – which at this point is also part of the orginal Via delle Gallie (constructed 12BC – 47AD) – crosses the pretty Augustan Roman bridge over the Buthier, the river which descends the Valpelline. The river has now changed its route, leaving the bridge to span a dry bed.

After that we pass around the 25BC Augustan monument – an imposing single arch, 11.4 metres high at the touchstone and with an 8.3 metre span.

Aosta’s medieval quarter

Still in the footsteps of the pilgrims, The Five Days of the Matterhorn hikers now pass along the broad thoroughfare of Via Sant’Enselmo, constructed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.  The highlight here is the birthplace of Saint Anselm (Aosta, 1033/4 – Canterbury 21 April 1109), a theologian, philosopher, one of the early travellers on the Via Francigena, and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 until his death.

This is where The Five Days of the Matterhorn ends and Heart of the Italian Alps commences. We always recommend at least one extra night in the city, to better enjoy its many treasures. If you book both trips back-to-back, a free day is created automatically.

Porta Prætoria and the city walls

Now our hikers reach the city walls, and the great front gate of Porta Prætoria.  As was common with Roman cities, the gate which pointed to Rome was the grandest. It has two walls and three arches – the central for carts and carriages and the laterals for pedestrians. The Tourist Office is located here.

From here, to the north and south, the walls commence their 2.6km circuit of the city, with most of them still intact and approachable. The towers, which numbered twenty at the time of construction, have been largely lost, but the Torre del Pailleron, near the station, and the Torre del Lebbroso, down the road from the regional library (inside which a section of the walls’ foundations can be viewed), are still standing.  This latter housed Pierre Bernard Guasco, a leper confined to the tower from 1773 to 1803, whose tale Xavier de Maistre recounts in his 1811 novel, The Leper of Aosta.

The Teatro

Beyond the Porta Prætoria, and in keeping with Roman city planning, is the main east-west thoroughfare, which would originally have been called the Decumana.

To the right, standing 22m high and built to hold 3000 spectators, the theatre and its surrounding complex were constructed in the first century AD. With the intention of providing entertainment, relaxation and a good impression to visitors, it is the grandest and most eye-catching of all the city’s Roman sites. 

The middle ages saw it used as a supporting wall for houses and shops before being returned to its original state.  The theatre now hosts performances and can be visited with the ‘all-in-one’ archeological ticket, which is available from the tourist office.

📸 (& top) Giusy Iaria

The paleochristian basilica of San Lorenzo & the church of Saints Peter and Ursus

Neither the grandest nor best known of Aosta’s Roman treasures, the crypt of San Lorenzo, the remains of a great necropolis, is one of its most important and compelling.

Just outside the city’s walls, past the centuries-old linden and then underground, visitors enter the crypt where early Christians and Pagan Romans are buried alongside each other. This place is so important, in the way in which it gives us a window into a time of monumental change.

The church of Saints Peter and Ursus grew up between the 800s and 1100s around the original construction of the church of San Lorenzo. In particular, the cloisters, built in 1132, are an exquisite location to spend a moment or two of peace and tranquility.

Entry is by way of the all-in-one Archeological ticket, available at the Tourist Office and Archeological Museum.

The criptoportico forense & the cathedral

An enigmatic and alluring underground structure, the horseshoe-shaped criptoportico forense consists of long, connected galleries supported by marble columns. 

Its purpose is still not entirely certain, but it is believed that it was built to separate the areas of the sacra (sacred) from the forense (law and commerce). Entry is by way of the all-in-one archeological ticket, available from the museum and the tourist office.

Close by the criptoportico, on the other side of what was the roman foro, is the cathedral, which was commenced in the fourth century. The fresco cycle dates to the eleventh century and, when considered together with those in the Church of Saints Peter and Ursus, make Aosta one of Europe’s most important locations for Ottavian – early Saxon – religious art.

The neolithic complex at St. Martin de Corléans

This breathtaking covered exhibition is one of the world’s most important locations for prehistory and protohistory. The archeological site – Europe’s largest covered – is on the western side of the city, about a kilometre from the centre. 

Inside – and suprisingly deep underground – is an exhibition of undisturbed stele, golems, cooking and ceremonial holes and wooden pieces in situ, as well as more than 2000 associated objects and statues displayed in exhiition.

📸 Stefano Merli

MTW Trips

Heart of the Italian Alps

The Five Days of the Matterhorn

Spring in the Alps

Links

Tales from the Regions: the Salassi and the Roman conquest of the Valle d’Aosta