Tales from the northwest: the Walsers & Kræmer Thal

The origins of the Walsers

On your modern-day map of Valle d’Aosta, in Italy’s northwest, you’ll no longer see the name Walser Landt: in its place, you’ll find Val Gressoney. However, were you a wealthy merchant of the late-sixteenth century, then you might have traced those words with your finger on your copy of Aegidius Tschudi’s map of Switzerland and the Alpine trade routes.

The story behind the name begins on the Gom plateau in the year 1000, with the settlement of the first Alemann frontierspeople. Gom is in the Swiss canton of Valais. Ranchers, shepherds and farmers, they were sent by their feudal lords for the purpose of territorial consolidation. The hardness of their new lands demanded a covenant, and these pioneers were rewarded with rights such as full personal freedom, judicial independence and a free inheritance.

(Tschudi helpfully drew his maps inverted, with north at the bottom of the page and south at the top).

The retreat of the glacier

From Gom some migrated further, to neighbouring territories including the valleys of Gressoney and Valtournenche, taking with them their Walser dialect. There is a straightforward etymological step from Valaisians to Walsians. On the Italian side, this dialect remains in common use in Gressoney Saint-Jean (1385m), Gressoney La-Trinité (1637m), Issime (953m) and in Gaby (1040m). Along with their belongings and language, the migrants also took with them their precious liberties.

This movement found its apogee in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when a temperate climate caused the retreat of the glacier, permitting the transit of the highest passes, even in winter. By this time, the lands on what is now the Italian side were controlled by the Cly, whose castle’s remains may be visited in the central valley near Châtillon; and, on the ‘Swiss’ side, by a collection of ecclesiastical institutions.

📸 Hagai Agmon-Snir

The growth of trade

Over the following 300 years, the one-way migration route became a two-way trade route: in 1548 we find the first reference to our name, Kræmer Thal.  Trade brought markets and fairs. Locals started charging tolls; hostelries and stables grew up around the toll houses. The region became prosperous, and its heart the town of Antagnod, where MTW’s The Five Days of the Matterhorn hike begins. Modern-day hikers traversing the majestic Cime Bianche col which separates Val Gressoney from the Valtournenche use the trails opened by the people in this period; views span the Monte Rosa glacier and the great peak of Cervino/Matterhorn.

The key pass was the Théodulo (3317m), first traversed since Roman times, later the base for English explorers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and, in the modern day, the site of a rifugio used by hikers and climbers.

The return of fear & cold in the high Alps

Suddenly, in the seventeenth century, the fear of plague, together with the Glorioso Rimpatrio migration of the Valdesi put a halt to this flow of people. You can pick up the story of the latter with our Rebel Valleys self-guided hike in Piemonte’s western alps. Archives and contemporary descriptions record the construction of border infrastructure and arrests. These buildings later served to prevent the traffic of contraband.

Meanwhile, the Little Ice Age, which lasted from the thirteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries, meant the mountains reclaimed their winter passes.

Modern-day Walser

The international boundaries have changed, and the Valle d’Aosta became an autonomous region after world war II. The cols of Cime Bianche are enjoyed by skiiers in the winter, and by hikers in the summer. But the Walser people and their language remain; and that name, Kræmer Thal, continues to conjour its image of mountains and brave traders.

The Walser tradition lives on in more than language. In Antagnod, we find their seal, which descends from that of the Valais: a heart encircling ten stars, to signify the Walser communities, together with a bent cross, signifying Mercury, the god of merchants. The architecture, some of which dates to the late 1500’s, includes isolated hay barns called stadel, blockbau wooden buildings, and, in Gaby, the Maison de la Pouhrta, a large villa with a walled courtyard.

Contact us today to book The Five Days of the Matterhorn self-guided hike. 📸 Roberto Breschi via CISV