From this ruin comes a surname you read everywhere in the Aosta Valley. In 1200 count Thomas the First of Savoy gave the viscount of Aosta, Bosone, the fief of Villa-Challand with permission to build a castle on it; from that moment Bosone and his descendants began to call themselves di Challant, and became the most powerful family of the valley.
What to see
At first it was a primitive castle: a rectangular tower a few metres to a side, closed by a curtain wall. Then came Ebalo the First, known as Ebalo the Great, who made it his favourite residence: he lengthened the walls to the north and south by some thirty metres, enlarged the court and in the new eastern part added a chapel and another rectangular building.
The castle stands on a hill above the village, in the val d'Ayas, not far from Verrès, in a position that served to control the road climbing the valley. When the architect Alfredo D'Andrade visited it in 1885, the chapel still held remains of frescoes, some carefully painted: today only a few fragments are left.
Visiting
You climb on foot from Challand-Saint-Victor by a path; it is an open ruin, with no ticket and no hours, and it calls for proper shoes and care among the masonry. An hour and a half up and down.
Our editors' tip
Walk along the walls and look for the point where they change. A ruined castle has one advantage over a restored one: the joints are exposed, and you can see where the small thirteenth-century enclosure ends and Ebalo's extension begins. It is the thing no reconstruction would let you read.