Hundreds of ibex horns cover the walls of the Trophy Gallery: Umberto I had them mounted, and they explain at a glance what this castle meant to the House of Savoy. Victor Emmanuel II bought it in 1869 and took the title of Count of Sarre, using it as the base for his hunts in Cogne, Valsavarenche and Rhêmes, the valleys that now form the Gran Paradiso National Park.
What to see
The long, heavy block sits on a terraced hill above the Mont Blanc motorway, with the tall battlemented tower and its cross windows raised at the king's orders in the middle. On the ground floor a permanent exhibition covers the Savoy family; on the first floor the Royal Apartment has been hung with fabrics reproduced from the 1890 inventories kept in Turin, and from there you step into the Trophy Gallery, among the horns and the painted floral decoration. The second floor recreates the rooms as Umberto II and Maria José used them. Inside the walls stand the small single-nave royal chapel and the stables built for Victor Emmanuel II.
Visiting
The castle has been open to the public since the restoration that followed 1989, when the state handed it to the Region; the Savoy had kept it until 1972. Its story runs much longer: a fortified house stood here in the thirteenth century, and in 1242 Amedeo IV and Gotofredo I di Challant met inside to plan how to stop the revolt of Ugo di Bard. The present shape dates from 1708, when Jean-François Ferrod d'Arvier, an industrialist enriched by military supplies and the copper mines of Ollomont, had it rebuilt from scratch, sparing only the tower.
Our editors' tip
Queen Margherita slept here for a single summer, in 1880, and then had her own castle built at Gressoney: one look at the Trophy Gallery explains why. Leave the second floor for last, the most domestic part of the house.