Barmasc Barmâhc

Pieit Piéit 1.880 m

Les Goïls Li Goi 1.856 m

The open, sunny plateau of Barmasc (Barmâhc in the local dialect), rich in meadows and woods at the foot of Mount Zerbion and Colle Portolaz, was once situated along a major transportation route connecting the Swiss valleys, the Biella area, and Valsesia—a route that had been used since prehistoric times, when the climate was more favorable.

The place name Barmasc, composed of the root *barma—derived from the Celtic term *balma (cave)—and the pre-Celtic Ligurian suffix *-asco (common in the names of places near waterways), refers to the characteristics of the site itself, which features a spring and large erratic boulders with natural shelters beneath them. The site has been inhabited since ancient times, and the enigmatic cup-marked boulder (with hemispherical indentations) in a clearing near Colle Portolaz is likely a marker of an ancient high-altitude route.

The course of the medieval Ru Cortot, an artificial canal that supplied water to the Saint Vincent hill, marks the landscape, flanked by a trail accessible to all.

In this area, some groups of houses, once used for summer pastures, are being transformed into permanent settlements now reached by paved roads and equipped with essential services (Pieit, Les Goïls).

Even in Barmasc, which is not historically documented as a village, the houses stand isolated from one another. Some date back to the end of the last century, while the older ones bear the possible date of construction (‘millesimi’) engraved on the window frames protected by iron grilles (1780, 1840, 1853).

A natural spring that gave rise to an ancient water cult, the venerated sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Help, the memory of impressive processions, and the visit on July 15, 1990, by His Holiness Pope John Paul II—to whose memory a large wooden cross is dedicated—make Barmasc a true place of spiritual significance.

Map of Barmasc

Sanctuary of the Madonna of Good Help

The Sanctuary, whose origins lie in a legendary event, in its present form dates back to 1744, but it was built on a pre-existing chapel, perhaps from the fifteenth century, already dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, the saint superimposed on older figures of pre-Christian worship linked to Mother Earth and water. In 1839 it was restored by the parish priest of Ayas, François Victor Amé Dandrès, thanks to whom, since devotion had by then long been directed towards the Virgin, it obtained from Rome the official title of Sanctuary, dedicated to Notre Dame du Bon Secours. Further restoration works were carried out in 1944, with internal and external paintings by Mazzini and De Lorenzi, and in 1950. At the base of the building a spring of water flows which, according to the faithful, would have healing and miraculous virtues and which, in past times, was providential for irrigating the meadows downstream and for powering mills and oil presses. This place, in continuity with a pre-existing pagan cult of waters, deeply rooted in Celtic land and repeated for centuries also at the springs of France, was the destination of important processions. The pilgrims went up there not only from Val d’Ayas but also from the Saint-Vincent side and lower Valtournenche, through the Colle Portolaz, to praise the virtues of the perennial spring, to ask for favourable weather for the countryside and a good harvest, to invoke rain or make it cease. Here they also practised the rite of the immersion of the Cross, immersing the processional Cross three times in the spring water, a ritual that recalls baptism and the three days in which Christ remained in the tomb before the resurrection. From Antagnod the cross of 1714 was probably used, still preserved today in the parish of Saint Martin. The staff, carved with scenes of the Passion and a Pietà, has notches at a distance of approximately 4.4 cm, corresponding to the ancient Ayas linear measure called ontsa (the second phalanx of the middle finger of a man). Only the portion corresponding to the real need for rain was immersed. Today Barmasc is the destination of a procession that starts from the parish church of Antagnod, on the day of the ‘Barmasc feast’, at the end of June, followed by Holy Mass and afternoon vespers.

Inside, the altar with canopy dates back to 1938–39. On it stands a painting of the Madonna with Child and, on the sides, Saint Grat and Saint Jocund, the two Aosta Valley saints invoked to obtain rain and protect against bad weather, who replace the Magdalene, no longer the titular saint of the building and to whom the previous altar was dedicated. Popular devotion has been particularly directed towards the image of the Blessed Virgin: a half-length figure in cardboard and plaster of a crowned Madonna nursing the Child, with long red hair loose over her shoulders (like the Magdalene), according to a sixteenth-century German type. Of the same period are also the painted wooden shutters decorated with figures of Saints: inside, Saint Lawrence with the gridiron and Saint Martin dividing the cloak; on the outside, Saint Anne supporting the Virgin as a child and the Infant Jesus, and Saint Catherine with the symbols of her martyrdom, the sword and the broken wheel.

The origin of the Sanctuary of Barmasc is rooted in a legendary event that presents a recurring motif. Legend has it that a beggar, passing through Barmasc on his way to the Colle Portolaz, stopped to drink from the spring that flows in that place. He carried with him a painting of the Virgin with the Child, which he had placed on a rock: when he tried to leave, he could no longer detach the painting from the rock, despite his efforts and numerous attempts. The beggar then went down to Antagnod to tell the parish priest what had happened, and he brought the painting to the parish church: the next day, however, the painting had disappeared and was found again on the same rock at Barmasc. The same outcome occurred with the attempt to take the painting to the Chapel of Lignod: it returned up there, to its place. The message of the Virgin was clear and in that place, right above the spring, the Chapel was built.

From S.Favre, Ayas. Antropologia di un territorio. Luoghi, leggende, storie, fatti, Priuli & Verlucca 2020

A devotional itinerary

The ascent to Monte Zerbion, starting from Barmasc, is also the destination of true pilgrimages that take place along a special itinerary, both devotional and artistic, a symbolic path of recollection and of approach to the divine that leads to the summit, a symbolic locus par excellence, where heaven and earth meet. The trail is lined with bas-reliefs depicting the twelve Stations of the Cross and the Mysteries of the Rosary, created for the Jubilee of the year 2000 on the initiative of the Parish of Châtillon and commissioned following a vow made for a received grace by Celestino Noussan (1940–2019), originally from Valtournenche, a trader in agricultural products and a man of great faith, very devoted to the Virgin. The preparatory drawings for the entire sculptural route are by Gabriel Girardi, while the artists who carved the large lose, about 8 cm thick and weighing 300 kg each, are Marcello Salvetta (bas-reliefs from Barmasc to the Col Portolaz, 1995), Jane Vanderpoel (Mysteries of the Rosary, from the Col Portolaz to the summit of Zerbion, 1999) and Umberto Sangallo (relief of Jesus in Gethsemane at Barmasc, 2004). The summit of Zerbion is crowned by a colossal white bronze statue of the blessing Madonna, who extends her embrace towards the central valley between the municipalities of Châtillon and Saint-Vincent. The work, better known as the Madonna of Zerbion or Madonna of the Alps and conceived to commemorate the return of soldiers from the front of the Great War in fulfilment of an ancient votive offering of the valley women, was blessed in the church of Saint-Vincent on 13 September 1929, carried up the mountain by the Alpini of Major Vincent Gorris and inaugurated on 10 September 1932. Five metres high and weighing 500 kilograms, it was divided into five parts and its transport required no fewer than “81 man-days, 4 horse-days, 16 and 1/4 mule-days, for a cost of 1,894 lire”, as reported in the press of the time. Restored in July 1993 on the commission of the Monte Cervino Mountain Community, it is reached every year on 29 July by the inhabitants of the villages at the foot of the mountain to attend Mass and renew, in prayer, the ancient vow.

A true viewpoint

The summit of Monte Zerbion (2,722 m) is one of the best-known and most popular destinations in the Val d’Ayas, offering magnificent views of nearby Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn, Gran Paradiso and Mont Blanc. The route is also known for the Way of the Cross and the enormous statue of the Virgin Mary, ‘Regina Pacis’, situated on the summit. The hike presents no particular difficulties apart from the final section leading to Colle Portolaz, which is steep and slightly exposed.

Monsignor Giuseppe Obert (1890-1972)

An extraordinary figure as a priest and missionary bishop, as a boy he spent his summers working as a shepherd on a mountain pasture just a stone’s throw from the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Help. He entered the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in Milan in 1912 and left for Bengal (India) in 1919. He was Bishop of Dinajpur (Bangladesh) from 1948 to 1968. His motto: Virgo potens, erige pauperem – Mighty Virgin, lift up the poor.

Ayas

1.880 meters

Barmasc Barmâhc

Map of Barmasc

Sanctuary of the Madonna of Good Help

A devotional itinerary

A true viewpoint

Monsignor Giuseppe Obert (1890-1972)

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