In the distinctive village of Chemp, an engaging “art village” comes to life: a true permanent open-air museum. Its renewed charm is thanks to the beautiful wooden sculptures created by Giuseppe “Pino” Bettoni and his collaborators, who have enriched corners of the mountain hamlet. A stroll through its lanes – with old raccards and granaries as a backdrop – offers a step back in time among works ranging from powerful human figures to animal subjects, showcasing remarkable skill and imagination in wood carving.
Foto: lovevda.it
Glacières Mill is a well-preserved example of industrial archaeology and rural architecture.
Dating to the 18th century, it was a water mill powered by the Rû stream through a pressurised channel (béal). Inside, a mechanism ground grain and cereals, and at times it also worked as an oil press or a sawmill. It was the heart of the local agro-forestry-pastoral economy until the 1960s. After a period of inactivity, the site underwent conservation restoration. Today it is recognised as a heritage asset of historical and cultural interest and can be visited to understand past Alpine life.
Foto: lovevda.it
In Lillianes, the headquarters of the “Il Riccio” cooperative hosts a small museum displaying historic tools used to process chestnuts, local varieties of the fruit and a faithfully reconstructed gra, along with traditional domestic spaces (kitchen and bedroom). While the old techniques are explained, the most direct experience comes in October, when the museum allows visitors to watch modern harvesting and processing stages live.
Foto: lovevda.it
Every day at 9:15 a.m., a bell rings out from the panoramic balcony of the village of Marine. It is the “Partisan Bell”, dedicated to the memory of the Resistance, because this is where the first shot against Nazi-fascist forces in Val d’Aosta was fired. The bell is named “Aurora”, in honour of Aurora Vuillerminaz, a young partisan executed on 16 October 1944. She was captured while returning from Switzerland, escorting young people eager to join the movement.
Foto: lovevda.it
Located in the Capoluogo area, inside the historic building that once hosted the first partisan band of the lower Val d’Aosta – the Brigata Lys – the museum is dedicated to the Resistance and the struggle for Liberation in Val d’Aosta. It displays memorabilia, uniforms, weapons and assorted objects, alongside valuable documentary, photographic and iconographic material enhanced by multimedia technology.
The permanent exhibition offers an engaging route, with Resistance videos and multilingual audio guides. The museum also hosts a documentation centre with publications and archival material.
Foto: museobrigatalys.it
The Freedom Trail follows the old mule track that once linked the plain to the Lys Valley and the Col de Fenêtre, winding through Perloz. Along the way it connects three sites of particular meaning and memory related to partisan resistance against Nazi-fascism.
The route starts at Plan-de-Brun, scene of the first battle (4 March 1944), then continues to Perloz, where reprisals such as the 30 June 1944 fire took place. It then reaches Marine, the Brigata Lys’s winter base and the site where the Partisan Bell (or “Aurora Bell”) was raised.
Foto: lovevda.it
Reaching this place on foot is highly recommended. At Plan de Sorcières you can see several boulders carved with cup marks. The largest (about 2 x 1.80 m) is especially striking for its many cup marks, some circled, with diameters ranging from 5 to 12 cm. The area’s name (“Witches’ Plateau”) comes precisely from the presence of these mysterious stones worked by people in very ancient times.
Foto: googlemaps.it
The gold mine, reached via an easy walk, is a gallery that was exploited for the extraction of precious metal for about a decade, between 1816 and 1826. Safe access to the gallery is possible, provided you have a torch.
Foto: lovevda.it
The Mont Mars Regional Nature Reserve, in the municipality of Fontainemore and covering 380 hectares, is a genuine Alpine gem: dense forests, lakes, wetlands, pastures and the imposing Mont Mars peak (2,600 metres). It is a crossroads of nature, history and tradition, crossed by a network of trails linked to the old agro-pastoral economy (transhumance) and by the famous Fontainemore-Oropa religious procession, documented for over four centuries.
The visitor centre of the Mont Mars Regional Nature Reserve is located in the village of Fontainemore.
Foto: montmars.it
In the distinctive village of Chemp, an engaging “art village” comes to life: a true permanent open-air museum. Its renewed charm is thanks to the beautiful wooden sculptures created by Giuseppe “Pino” Bettoni and his collaborators, who have enriched corners of the mountain hamlet. A stroll through its lanes – with old raccards and granaries as a backdrop – offers a step back in time among works ranging from powerful human figures to animal subjects, showcasing remarkable skill and imagination in wood carving.
Foto: lovevda.it
Glacières Mill is a well-preserved example of industrial archaeology and rural architecture.
Dating to the 18th century, it was a water mill powered by the Rû stream through a pressurised channel (béal). Inside, a mechanism ground grain and cereals, and at times it also worked as an oil press or a sawmill. It was the heart of the local agro-forestry-pastoral economy until the 1960s. After a period of inactivity, the site underwent conservation restoration. Today it is recognised as a heritage asset of historical and cultural interest and can be visited to understand past Alpine life.
Foto: lovevda.it
In Lillianes, the headquarters of the “Il Riccio” cooperative hosts a small museum displaying historic tools used to process chestnuts, local varieties of the fruit and a faithfully reconstructed gra, along with traditional domestic spaces (kitchen and bedroom). While the old techniques are explained, the most direct experience comes in October, when the museum allows visitors to watch modern harvesting and processing stages live.
Foto: lovevda.it
Every day at 9:15 a.m., a bell rings out from the panoramic balcony of the village of Marine. It is the “Partisan Bell”, dedicated to the memory of the Resistance, because this is where the first shot against Nazi-fascist forces in Val d’Aosta was fired. The bell is named “Aurora”, in honour of Aurora Vuillerminaz, a young partisan executed on 16 October 1944. She was captured while returning from Switzerland, escorting young people eager to join the movement.
Foto: lovevda.it
Located in the Capoluogo area, inside the historic building that once hosted the first partisan band of the lower Val d’Aosta – the Brigata Lys – the museum is dedicated to the Resistance and the struggle for Liberation in Val d’Aosta. It displays memorabilia, uniforms, weapons and assorted objects, alongside valuable documentary, photographic and iconographic material enhanced by multimedia technology.
The permanent exhibition offers an engaging route, with Resistance videos and multilingual audio guides. The museum also hosts a documentation centre with publications and archival material.
Foto: museobrigatalys.it
The Freedom Trail follows the old mule track that once linked the plain to the Lys Valley and the Col de Fenêtre, winding through Perloz. Along the way it connects three sites of particular meaning and memory related to partisan resistance against Nazi-fascism.
The route starts at Plan-de-Brun, scene of the first battle (4 March 1944), then continues to Perloz, where reprisals such as the 30 June 1944 fire took place. It then reaches Marine, the Brigata Lys’s winter base and the site where the Partisan Bell (or “Aurora Bell”) was raised.
Foto: lovevda.it
Reaching this place on foot is highly recommended. At Plan de Sorcières you can see several boulders carved with cup marks. The largest (about 2 x 1.80 m) is especially striking for its many cup marks, some circled, with diameters ranging from 5 to 12 cm. The area’s name (“Witches’ Plateau”) comes precisely from the presence of these mysterious stones worked by people in very ancient times.
Foto: lovevda.it
The gold mine, reached via an easy walk, is a gallery that was exploited for the extraction of precious metal for about a decade, between 1816 and 1826. Safe access to the gallery is possible, provided you have a torch.
Foto: lovevda.it
The Mont Mars Regional Nature Reserve, in the municipality of Fontainemore and covering 380 hectares, is a genuine Alpine gem: dense forests, lakes, wetlands, pastures and the imposing Mont Mars peak (2,600 metres). It is a crossroads of nature, history and tradition, crossed by a network of trails linked to the old agro-pastoral economy (transhumance) and by the famous Fontainemore-Oropa religious procession, documented for over four centuries.
The visitor centre of the Mont Mars Regional Nature Reserve is located in the village of Fontainemore.
Foto: lovevda.it