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Territory
Party Palace
Party Palace
Sixteenth-century frescoes in the Chapel of Sant'Andrea, Horres
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Edoardo Schiari
Sixteenth-century frescoes in the Chapel of Sant'Andrea, Horres
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Edoardo Schiari
The carnival
The carnival
Summer landscape
Summer landscape
Winter view of Horres
Winter view of Horres
Summer landscape
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Francesco Bogetti
Summer landscape
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Francesco Bogetti
Bardonecchia, the pearl of the Alps
Bardonecchia, the pearl of the Alps
Traditional costumes
Traditional costumes
Piazza De Gasperi, 1, 10052 Bardonecchia
Bardonecchia extends into the vast basin at the confluence of the Rochemolles, Rho, Valle Stretta and Frejus valleys at 1312 meters above sea level. The capital is divided into two villages: the Borgo Vecchio and the Borgo Nuovo, but its territory also includes some hamlets that were once autonomous municipalities: Les Arnauds, Melezet, Millaures and Rochemolles.
The ancient inhabited nucleus of Bardonecchia consists of the Borgovecchio, gathered around the Parish Church of S. Ippolito characterized by the particularity of having two bell towers. The interior preserves valuable wooden furnishings such as the ancient fifteenth-century choir purchased from the Novalesa Abbey, while the seventeenth-century retable of the main altar is in the style of the workshop of Jacques Jesse of Embrun. The Civic Museum overlooks the Church square, the ancient seat of the Municipal House, hosting on two floors the collection of testimonies of local cultural material: furnishings, tools, traditional costumes, antiquities of a religious nature. Dominating the Bardonecchia basin is the Tur d'Amun (14th century), one of the most significant early medieval archaeological complexes in the Susa Valley: the legendary historical figure of François de Bardonnèche, a local feudal lord who inspired legends, is anchored in this place and books.
From Borgovecchio through the Three Crosses Bridge you can directly reach the hamlets of Les Arnauds and Melezet by walking along the canal, whose water once served to power the machinery for the work of the Frejus Tunnel and today enriched with wooden installations contemporary art.
The Bardonecchia basin is also known for the extraordinary cycles of frescoes and the wooden retàbles that decorate the chapels of its hamlets: the retable (17th century) of San Lorenzo in Les Arnauds, the frescoes (15th-16th century) of the Chapel of Notre dame du Coignet, the garlands of the master carvers of Melezet (17th-18th century) in the parish church of Sant'Antonio Abate, the frescoes (15th century) in the San Sisto chapel at Pian del Colle, the retable of the parish church of Sant'Andrea apostolo in Millaures and the frescoes (15th century) of the chapel of SS. Andrew and James in Horres, the frescoes (15th and 16th century) of the pylon of Pra Lavin and the parish church of San Pietro in Rochemolles. From the historic center you can also access the two valleys of Rho and Frejus, the granges of the same name and the villages, while the hills of the same name, which can be explored on foot or by mountain bike or on horseback, connect Bardonecchia to the French town of Modane, the first French center at the of the Frejus tunnel. The works for the construction and inauguration of the Frejus Railway Tunnel in 1871 changed the landscape and decreed the birth of Borgonuovo and tourism.
With mountaineering and skiing, Bardonecchia (an undertaking in 1901 by Adolfo Kind on Mount Tabor) became one of the most important tourist centers in the Alps: a tourist and holiday destination, it saw a strong building expansion with the construction of large hotels, villas in liberty style and the Palazzo delle Feste, as the result of great protagonists of international architectural culture such as Carlo Mollino, Gino Levi-Montalcini, Mario Cappuccio and Carlo and Paolo Ceresa. Today it is a mountain tourist town that comes alive both in summer and winter with the ski slopes of Colomion and Campo Smith or Jafferau, but also with calendars full of international events.
