The name comes from Saint Peter, San Peyre in local speech, contracted into Sampeyre. The town's arms confirm it, carrying the initials S and P of the older form. In 1940 the Fascist government italianised the name to Sampeire; the old one came back in 1955. Occitan is still spoken in the Varaita valley: ubac is the shaded side, adrecc the sunny one.
The parish church of Santi Pietro e Paolo is fifteenth-century and keeps, behind a facade rebuilt in the nineteenth, its rose window and a doorway carved with heads of men and animals. In 1580 Huguenots sacked the village and levelled the bell tower.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Sampeyre
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Sampeyre, but an easy day trip away.