Château d’Introd

FOCUS

EVENTS

At an altitude of almost 900 metres, where the confluence of the Dora di Rhêmes and the Savara torrent can be glimpsed, where the Gran Paradiso National Park begins, stands Introd Castle. Its origins date back to the 12th-13th centuries. Despite numerous alterations over the following centuries, including rural service structures such as the granary, its external appearance retains a genuine medieval flavour. The last owner who lived within its mighty walls, in the early 20th century, wanted to have structures, works and furnishings inserted that recall other well-known Aosta Valley castles.
A short distance from the castle is the parish church, also of medieval origin, and the L’Ola farmstead, dating back to the first half of the 15th century and used for several centuries as a stable, stud and barn.

Information
Castle of Introd
Plan d’Introd fraction
INTROD
e-mail: beniculturali@regione.vda.it
The Castle is currently managed by the Municipality of Introd

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

ORIGINS

THE SARRIOD D’INTROD

THE MOST RECENT EVENTS

The castle’s origins are shrouded in mystery. What is certain is that the tower is the oldest part, built in the 12th-13th centuries. Other structures were added around it in the following centuries. The first news of the existence of a fortified house, owned by the Lords of Bard, dates back to 1242: in that year, Amadeus IV of Savoy deprived the rebel Ugo di Bard of some possessions in the lower valley, but granted his son Marco the ownership of Introd. The castle was rebuilt in the unusual polygonal shape by Pietro Sarriod, Marco’s second son.

At the end of the 14th century, his marriage to Antonia, daughter of Ibleto di Challant, secured Luigi Sarriod a dowry of 3,000 florins and a link with the most powerful lord of the valley. On Luigi’s death in 1420, Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy assigned the properties of Introd and Rhêmes to his eldest son Ibleto and the tower of Saint-Pierre to Giovanni, progenitor of the Sarriod de La Tour family. Having become the residence and jurisdictional centre of the Sarriod d’Introd, the castle was renovated, perhaps with the involvement of the Aosta Valley sculptor and architect Stefano Mossettaz.

Sales and donations gradually impoverished the family estate. In 1855, a fire caused serious damage to the structure and interior, and the castle fell into a state of neglect. The mansion only came back to life in 1912, when it was purchased by Cavalier Alberto Gonella. In 2022, the regional administration acquired the property from Gonella’s last heir, Don Giuseppe Caracciolo di Brienza, and planned new study, restoration and valorisation works.

PROTAGONISTS

PIETRO SARRIOD
ALBERTO GONELLA
GIOVANNI CHEVALLEY
GIOVANNI COMOLETTI

PIETRO SARRIOD

When Ibleto di Challant died, the fief of Introd passed to his four sons. One of them was Pietro, who in the mid-15th century married Caterina, daughter of Francesco, the first Count of Challant. In the frequent and bloody disputes for control of the territories involving branches of the different families, Pietro is said to have had to defend the possessions left to Caterina di Challant by her father, who died without male heirs, claimed by other members of the family. Peter died in an ambush at Verrès in 1456 while rushing to the rescue of his wife, besieged in the Castle of Châtillon.

ALBERTO GONELLA

Lawyer Alberto Gonella was a prominent figure in the Turin financial community between the 19th and 20th centuries. A partner in the Kuster e C. Bank, he married Maria Calani, daughter of Marquis Aristide, owner of the ‘Gazzetta di Torino’. An assiduous visitor to the Rhêmes valley driven by a passion for hunting, he bought the castle in 1912 and had it rebuilt by the engineer Giovanni Chevalley, to whom he had already entrusted the work on his Turin home. Gonella died in 1921; in the absence of children, his property passed to his nieces Maria Letizia and Paola Calani, who spent decades there.

GIOVANNI CHEVALLEY

Designer, university lecturer, interior decorator and collector, the engineer Chevalley worked for a long time for the public administration in Turin; in his very long career (he died at the age of 86 in 1954), he favoured the Baroque style, but the contribution of neo-Gothic culture, matured in the circle of the Portuguese architect, archaeologist and painter Alfredo d’Andrade, was fundamental in his training. This youthful experience would flow into the reconstruction of Introd Castle. In Introd he then realised the war memorial (1923) and in Aosta the headquarters of the Cassa di Risparmio di Torino (1929).

GIOVANNI COMOLETTI

Born in Valsesia in 1842, Giovanni Comoletti was one of the main sculptors active in the second half of the 19th century in the Aosta Valley. More than his many statues with sacred subjects, his fame is linked to his extraordinary skill in decorative carving in the late Gothic style. He carried out the furnishings for several prestigious residences refurbished in the neo-medieval fashion, such as the La Tour de Villa Castle in Gressan and the Saint-Pierre Castle. His best-known and most important artistic endeavour, carried out shortly before his death, was the décor for the Piedmontese pavilion for the 1911 Regional Exhibition in Rome, organised on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Unification of Italy.

FOCUS

The furnishings

Under the skilful direction of Chevalley, the castle is furnished with neo-Gothic style furniture, mostly made by skilled craftsmen whose names we unfortunately do not ...[..]

The granaries

At the entrance to the castle stand two granaries, originally intended for grain storage, later also used as barns. Dated to the first half of ...[..]

The inscriptions

Under the courtyard portico, the phrase in patois Meison l'at non torna (The house is called Torna) takes up an old Aosta Valley proverb alluding ...[..]

The paintings

Giovanni Chiapasco, who led the restoration of the Sant'Orso Priory in Aosta in 1915, also worked at Introd for Alberto Gonella. Here he produced pictorial decorations ...[..]