What to see · Charvensod

More places of interest

• Santuario Notre-Dame-de-Pitié

  Sanctuaries grow up where people pass. This one, of the sixteenth century, stands near the Pont-Suaz, the three-arched bridge that links Charvensod to Aosta: those coming down from the village towards the city and those going up from the city towards the pastures went by there, and there they found a church dedicated to Our Lady of Pity.

  What to see

  It is a small, plain building, like almost all valley-floor sanctuaries in the Aosta Valley. Charvensod lies south of Aosta, on the envers, that is on the north-facing slope: the shaded side of the valley, where in winter the sun arrives late and leaves early, and where the vine has never been grown.

  The village has a parish church dedicated to saint Columba of probable Merovingian origin, and above the houses spreads the wide alpine pasture of Comboé. These are the three poles of a mountain municipality: the village church, the chapel on the road, the pasture up high.

  Visiting

  The sanctuary is near the Pont-Suaz, on the road between Charvensod and Aosta; it is a minor church, so it opens mainly for services and on feast days. A quarter of an hour.

  Our editors' tip

  If you have a day, walk up to Comboé. The pasture belonged to the collegiate church of Sant'Orso in Aosta from 1268 until 1999: seven hundred and thirty years of unbroken ownership, ended little more than twenty years ago. It is one of those continuities you no longer expect to find in Europe, and this one ended when you were already born.

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