Ayas

1.698 meters

Magnéaz Magnéa

Les Fusines Li Fejeune – 1.700 m
Blanchard Biantchart – 1.724 m
Rovinal Rovénal – 1.709 m
Praz-Sec Pra-Sec – 1.700 m
Les Péyoz Li Péyo – 1.725 m
Les Droles Li Drole – 1.757 m
Bernosin Bernozìn – 1.750 m

One of the most fascinating, peaceful, and panoramic villages in the Val d’Ayas, Magnéaz (Magnéa in patois), whose name would seem to derive from the Latin Magnus to emphasize its former importance, has a very ancient history: documentary sources mention it as one of the first inhabited centers and the seat of the first parish church of Ayas. Even after the parish church was transferred to Antagnod, before 1176, it remained one of the most important centers in the valley.

It was connected to the lower Aosta Valley by the mule track, still partly existing today, that crosses the Col de Joux, along which mule caravans passed on their way to the Montservin Pass (today the Saint Theodul Pass) to reach Valais. Along this stretch, the route was and still is called Rue de la Traversa because it runs transversely, halfway up the slope, along the right side of the Ayas basin.

The layout of the village is the typical one of the Traversa villages: the buildings wind along the contour lines and follow or lean against one another along the service lanes that follow the line of greatest slope and allow passage between the different levels of the buildings.

While on the ground floor of buildings in other villages there are mostly stables, in Magnéaz these were very often warehouses, perhaps because this was a stopping place for merchants traveling through the valleys along what some scholars define as the Krämerthal route.

The village possessed two ovens, a mill, a forge, and a cooperative dairy. In 1806 it acquired its first modern school structure, based on the democratic principles established by the French Revolution: the school was administered by the heads of the village families, who appointed the teacher without any interference from the parish.

The settlement of Magnéaz also owes its fame to the noble Quey family, one of the most important in Ayas between the 16th and 18th centuries, which owned numerous properties throughout the basin and some of the finest buildings found in Magnéaz along Rue Capitaine Quey, the street beginning in front of the church and descending parallel to Rue de la Traversa. It is dedicated to the most representative member of the family, Claude Quey, captain of the militias of the Duchy of Aosta in the 17th century.

Map of Magnéaz

Rue Capitaine Quey

Along this road, dedicated to Captain Claude Quey, stand the oldest houses of the village of Magnéaz. The road was in fact a section of the ancient Krämerthal route, the medieval trade road that, through the Col de Joux and Montservin, carried merchants and their goods from Châtillon to the Valais and vice versa. Along Rue Quey there is a succession of ancient and solid stone houses, which were not only dwellings but also meeting places and storage spaces, dating from the period when the Krämertal route was active (14th–17th centuries), interspersed with rascard, multifunctional houses created by superimposing the Walser Blockhaus, typical of German-speaking regions (a storage area for tools and/or a granary-barn), on the two-storey stone house typical of the Franco-Provençal area. In this type of building, the lower floor housed the stable/winter dwelling, while the upper floor was the summer dwelling (péyo): a very interesting cultural hybrid. Entering Rue Quey from the chapel, we immediately find the Majonaza, a vertically developed dwelling, then on the left the Clockmaker’s House and on the right the Miscioline House; this is followed by one of the village’s two ovens, the Quey hall, and the Blanc rascard (du Blanc Fournier). Further on, after the century-old ash tree beneath which the Cazzette rascard stands, in the area known as la Pera (the stone), we find the House of Captain Claudio Quey and the House of Martin Quey (later Vescoz House). Finally, at the exit of the village, there is the small Oratory of Notre-Dame de la Guérison. Among the many fine rascard of Magnéaz, the Blanc rascard and the Cazzette rascard stand out for their historical and architectural importance. Rue Quey continues beyond the oratory, initially paved, cutting across the slope towards Bisous. The view of Monte Zerbion is particularly striking, rivaling the wide panorama over the broad Ayas basin and the gentle curve of the pastures descending towards the Evançon. After a few hundred metres, beyond a bend, the road reaches a small wooded ravine crossed by a stream. To the right, a short climb leads back to the regional road SR5, while to the left the road becomes unpaved and continues through the meadows: but this is not the ancient Strada della Traversa, only a recently built agricultural road that ends after a few hundred metres. The ancient Strada della Traversa, which formed part of the Krämerthal route, branches off to the right of this road shortly after the ravine, and its beginning is marked by a signpost.

Rascard of the Cazzette

This double rascard, made up of two rascard in sequence sharing the wall that separates them, is one of the five oldest rascard in Ayas: a perfect example of late medieval Ayas rascard. Dendrochronological dating has assigned the felling of the timber used in its construction to the years 1442–1448. Observing the double rascard from the valley below, it can be seen how it adapts well to the terrain, following its contour lines. The right-hand structure appears entirely intact, while the left-hand one, at least in the masonry base, has been modified: this is proven by the fact that the wooden structure rests directly on the base, without the small pillars that separate the two parts to allow air circulation beneath the tchambèral. Let us examine the right-hand rascard. The base has only one storey, as is characteristic of the oldest rascard. It contains, on the left, the majón, and on the right, the cellar. In the majón, the hearth has no hood and the smoke escaped through the window. The rascard above, made of large logs that are only bark-stripped, rests on four base beams: large logs split in half. The tops of the small pillars fit into housings carved into them, without the interposition of the circular stone slabs that characterise later buildings: the flat underside of the beams is sufficient to prevent rodents from entering. The small pillars themselves rest on a beam framework, which distributes the load onto the masonry. On the first floor, beside the central threshing floor (éra, A), there is a single tchambèral (T) on each side. The flooring of the éra (A) is made of planks carefully fitted together so that, during threshing, the grain is not lost through the gaps. A distinctive feature compared to other rascard is that these planks are laid transversely to the building and extend out onto the façade to form the landing platform at the entrance of the rascard. The flooring of the tchambèrai (T) is instead made of small logs, laid parallel to the façade and slightly spaced apart to allow air circulation. The logs rest on the base beams and are held in place by the weight of the logs above forming the wall, so that their ends remain visible on the façade. Two small tchambrette (G) open towards the valley, on the left and right of the éra (A). Even the assembly of the gable differs from that of other rascard: a thick board runs vertically between the superimposed logs, connecting them and ensuring their vertical alignment. The structure is further reinforced by the interposition, between horizontal logs, of saddle-shaped pieces, which create an additional constraint against horizontal sliding. From C. Remacle, D. Marco, G. Thumiger, Ayas, Men and Architecture, Livres et Musique, Ayas, 2000, pp. 63–64 and 68–69.

Rascard of the Blanc

Called after the nickname of the Du Blanc Fournier family, who moved to Australia during the great emigration of the 1890s. In earlier centuries a Du Blanc Fournier was castellano-judge of the jurisdiction of the castle of Graines, a very important role which clearly explains the high quality of the building. From Rue Capitaine Quey one can see the heavily damaged rear façade, while the entire layout can be appreciated from below by going down the service path that separates it from the Quey Hall. Seen from below, the rascard appears as a typical Ayas rascard of seventeenth-century design. It has a two-storey masonry body: a storage room on the ground floor, the majón (kitchen), and a long balcony running along the entire façade on the first floor. Above this body rises the rascard, built with squared logs rather than simply bark-stripped ones as in older buildings. It rests on the characteristic ‘mushrooms’, small pillars topped with circular stone slabs. From this side, the rascard presents a large tchambretta, strongly projecting and supported by wooden braces. Inside are arranged the central éra (threshing floor) for threshing grain and two pairs of tchambèrai on the right and left. A second tchambretta projects over the alley to the right of the façade and is reached, in a virtually unique case in Ayas, by an external stone staircase. The staircase is carefully detached from the building to prevent rodent access. The vaulting of the storage room is a barrel vault and in its centre, again a unique case in all of Ayas, rises a stone staircase leading to the first floor, a sign of great wealth. Unfortunately part of the façade is now covered by a recently built wooden shed used as a storage space. Of great interest is the engraving on the stone lintel of the majón door with the Walser symbol, a sort of number four above a heart inside which the letters PP are engraved, surmounted by two stars; to the left 15 and to the right 71 form the date 1571, the year the lintel was set. Seen from above, from Rue Capitaine Quey, the masonry base is hardly visible, while the large supporting ‘mushrooms’ of the rascard are clearly seen. Roughly nailed boards cover part of the wooden structure, damaged by moisture that had infiltrated near the large fireplace of the majón that once stood here. In the wooden walls of the rascard there are beams with openings and unused joints, evidence that the rascard was moved, probably in the early eighteenth century. It therefore seems possible that the building was altered: the masonry base may not originally have been the lower part of a rascard (an agricultural structure), but a small palace belonging to a wealthy merchant, similar to that of the Quey Hall, later converted for agricultural use between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when trade in Ayas, due to the Little Ice Age, was already in decline or had completely disappeared. The surprising existence of an internal staircase between the ground floor and the first floor would thus be explained.

La Majonaza

The Majonaza, literally “large kitchen”, is a typical vertically developed dwelling from the sixteenth century. These stone buildings, with exclusively residential functions, are sporadically found throughout the Aosta Valley, but are more concentrated in the chestnut-growing zone, below 1,000 metres in altitude, and in the area of Cogne. In Ayas the model appears from the late Middle Ages onwards. The house is normally, as in this case, composed of three superimposed rooms: a cellar on the ground floor, partly underground, a room with a hearth on the first floor, and a living room on the second floor. Often, as seen here, a wooden granary, built projecting on brackets, is attached to the façade. Communication between the various levels takes place externally, via short sections of staircase. On the ridge beam appears the IHS trigram, providing a terminus post quem: the roof was built after 1536, the year in which the Council of the Three States established that this symbol had to appear on all ridge beams of houses in the Aosta Valley. On the left side of the house, descending along Rue Capitaine Quey, one can observe an ancient vuidiou de l’eau, that is, the drainage of the sink of the majón (kitchen). On the wall above the drainage are three rows of square holes, aligned in three horizontal lines. These are the traces left by the scaffolding used in the construction of the wall. Not having modern metal scaffolding, in past centuries scaffolding was made using wooden poles and beams. When the wall under construction had reached a height at which it was no longer possible to continue building from the ground, scaffolding was erected by placing a series of poles parallel to the wall and horizontal beams to tie them together and to the wall under construction, resting their ends on it. On these beams the planking of the platform was placed. Working from this level, the wall continued to be built; the beams thus became embedded in it. When the height was appropriate, another level was built in the same way, and so on. Once the wall was finished, the scaffolding was removed, but the beam holes remain visible.

Casa Dondeynaz

Built as a multifunctional house with two stone floors and a rascard at the upper level, it was modified in the early years of the twentieth century when the rascard was removed. The building thus took on its current entirely stone appearance: cellar and stable on the ground floor, majón (kitchen) and péyo (living room) on the first floor, accessed via a stone staircase, a bathroom with bathtub (probably the first in Ayas) and a room for the schoolteacher on the second floor, with access both from the uphill side and via an internal staircase, and the hayloft on the top floor, accessed from the uphill side.

House of Martin Quey (then Casa Vescoz)

The imposing stone house, with only civil functions, is from the late 16th century, as revealed by the date 1593 placed on a window. The valley facade is decorated by a 1675 fresco of religious subject between four large white-bordered windows, whose dimensions are however not the original ones, as can be seen by comparing them with those of the two lower floors, because from them in the 1930s the stone frames were removed and sold to the Rivetti gentlemen to adorn the garden of the two villas in Antagnod. A shaped frame in the form of an inverted ship keel, with the construction date (1593) engraved and a Latin cross with the initials MQ and two stars, was later recovered by the current owners and placed on the uphill facade. The same initials are also engraved on some internal doors of the house and on a chest. The building belonged to the son of Captain Claude Quey, Martin Quey (hence the initials MQ), who in 1598 was centenier, a public official with administrative functions, and later, in 1637, lieutenant of the Company of Challant. The ownership by Martin Quey is also confirmed by the study of the transfers of ownership, recorded in the cadastral documents. The two cellar windows and the two on the first floor still have the squared stone frame, but the shape is different on the two floors: those of the cellar are straight with chamfered edges on all three sides (like those present in the Hall of the Quey), while the lintels of the frames on the first floor are shaped with an inverted ship keel motif. Mary with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Anne The image is now almost completely lost. The composition shows, in the center, the Virgin seated in an elevated position. On the left, Saint John the Baptist, holding in his hand a slender cross and a book, at his feet the Lamb. On the right, Saint Anne. The painted frame is decorated with floral motifs and in the lower part contains an now illegible inscription of which only: IO.NN colmo I.NI 1675 can be deciphered. It is likely that it refers to the author of the fresco.

House of the Watchmaker

This stone house from 1672, which is accessed on the first floor via an external wooden staircase, features at the center of the facade the dial of a large clock drawn, as an inscription states, by Jean-Baptiste Alliod, clockmaker, in 1864. The dial is flanked by two devotional frescoes. Higher up, a small wooden window opens onto a large hole in the masonry, which was opened to give light to the attic, breaking through the niche in which, originally, a statue of the Madonna was placed, which in the 1930s was sold. The niche was inscribed within a painted frame, still visible today, accompanied by the inscription: Je suis la mère du bel amour, de la crainte, de la science et de l’esperance sainte (I am the mother of beautiful love, of fear, of knowledge and of holy hope). Unfortunately, at the beginning of the last century, many houses were stripped of their decorations by holidaymakers, who bought the finest pieces to adorn their own villas. The two images on the sides of the clock dial are signed works by the Aosta Valley painter Franz Curta, very active in the Val d’Ayas in the second half of the nineteenth century. Indeed, his name and the date 1864 can be found on the left fresco. “The image represents the Virgin Assumed into heaven, carried by angels, according to classical iconography: dressed in red with a flowing blue mantle, she crosses her hands on her chest and directs her gaze toward the sky.” The right fresco “represents the Virgin according to the classical iconography of the Immaculate Conception: the Madonna, in profile, in a triumphant vision descends to Earth resting her feet on the crescent moon and on the globe. She holds in her left hand the flowering lily, symbol of purity. The state of preservation is quite deteriorated.” from L. Capra, G. Saglio, Immagini di devozione popolare nel territorio di Ayas. Pitture murali su abitazioni, cappelle e oratori, dal XVI al XX secolo in a Municipality of the Aosta Valley, in “Quaderni di cultura alpina”, Priuli & Verlucca Editori, Ivrea 1993, sheets 36, 37 It is interesting to note that the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed in 1854 by Pius IX. The depiction is therefore very up to date and is also present on the adjacent Casa dei Miscioline.

House of Captain Claudio Quey also known as Casa Marquis

Resting on a large boulder, in a strategic position dominating the valley, the large 16th-century house, the subject of recent restorations, was built at different times and stands out for its particular construction features. The small tower with Gothic windows that contains the viret (stone spiral staircase) identifies it at first sight as the residence of a wealthy landowner, since normally communication between the various levels takes place from the outside. On the second floor there are two small wooden rooms built as overhangs, one on brackets and the other supported by a column, which served as a granary and storage for provisions. On the valley facade there is a large chimney, probably used in ancient times for light signals. On one facade there is a sgraffito decoration with the IHS trigram at the center surrounded by tongues of fire, while in the masonry along the side of the road there is a painted recessed tabernacle with sacred depictions. The building is traditionally identified as the house of Captain Claude Quey. The QJB mark on the door leading to the viret may instead refer to Jean-Baptiste Quey, a descendant of the captain, who spent the last years of his life in this house in the 18th century. Tabernacle with Crucifixion, Saints and Madonna of Oropa The arched-shaped tabernacle is set into the side of the house facing Rue Capitaine Quey. “It is externally decorated with a double band of frames: the inner one features floral motifs, while the outer one has circular festoons similar to those decorating the northern side of the house. The inner space is divided into panels outlined in brick red. On the back wall the Crucifixion is depicted, with Mary on the left and a Saint (Saint John the Evangelist?) on the right. […] On the left side are depicted Saint Anne and Saint Margaret. The former, in a more external position, wears a brown mantle and is in a praying posture; Saint Margaret, placed in the more internal part, is clothed in green. In the upper part the Holy Spirit is represented in the form of the mystic dove. On the right side is depicted the Madonna of Oropa in the classical iconography: she holds the crowned Child with her left hand, the globus cruciger in her right, and wears a light mantle with floral decorations. […] The veneration of Saint Anne and Saint Margaret was very widespread throughout the valley. The statues of the Saints adorn the main altar of the church of Antagnod, the church of Champoluc is dedicated to Saint Anne […] To Saint Margaret, virgin of Antioch, invoked in childbirth, whose cult was olto diffused throughout the Aosta Valley, is dedicated the chapel of the village of Graines, in the municipality of Brusson.” from L.Capra, G.Saglio, Immagini di devozione popolare nel territorio di Ayas. Pitture murali su abitazioni, cappelle e oratori, dal XVI al XX secolo in a Municipality of the Aosta Valley, in “Quaderni di cultura alpina”, Priuli & Verlucca Editori, Ivrea 1993, sheet 6

House of the Miscioline

It is a large house with concentrated functions: storage on the ground floor, living rooms on the first floor, barns and granaries on the upper floors. In the storage room the dough for bread was prepared which was baked in the nearby oven. On the second floor two small wooden rooms, built as overhangs on brackets, served as granaries and storage for reserves. The floors are everywhere in wood, except in the large storage room on the ground floor, which has a sail vault resting on a central stone column. In the upper part of the facade there are two windows with shaped collar and fake frame. On the ridge beam the date 1662 is engraved. Having abandoned forms of Gothic influence, the size of the windows in the 17th century increases and in the middle of the century the custom spreads of framing openings with a plastered collar. Between the two windows there is an image, which has been intentionally covered over. From the inscription above, still legible, MARIA CONCEPTA and from the monogram M inserted in the circle, it can be deduced that the image must have represented the Virgin Mary, according to the iconographic model of the Immaculate Conception also present in the House of the Clockmaker.

Chapel of the Visitation

The current chapel is today dedicated to Our Lady of the Visitation and belongs to the Parish of Champoluc, but originally it was dedicated to Saint Peter and belonged to the Parish of Antagnod. The oldest part consists of the chancel and the apse, built in the fifteenth century, which formed a small chapel, as shown by a reconnaissance act of 15 January 1440 which reveals that it was dedicated to Saint Peter. The Challant family, the feudal lords of the valley, contributed to its construction, remembered by the coat of arms on the keystone of the presbytery ceiling. The nave was added between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The two different bodies can be clearly read when observing the chapel from uphill. Outside, in a niche above the side door facing the road, there is a painted standing Madonna with the crowned and blessing Child. To her right, on the side of the apse beyond the base of the bell tower, just under the roof, there are two frescoes. The first depicts the Madonna nursing the Child: it is a very ancient composition and unique in the territory of Ayas for its subject. The second, more recent, depicts Saint Grat, first bishop of Aosta, with a staff and episcopal robes. Leaning against the bell tower is a large Mission cross, in wood, with the ‘instruments of the Passion of Christ’ (in Latin called Arma Christi). On the vertical beam, from the top, we see: the tunic disputed among the legionaries at the foot of the cross, the crown of thorns, the hands and feet pierced by nails, the thirty silver coins paid to Judas for his betrayal, the ladder used for the deposition of Jesus from the cross. On the horizontal arm from the left: the tongs used to un-nail him, the container of vinegar used to quench Jesus’ thirst, the sword with which Peter cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest to defend Jesus from arrest in the garden of olives, the rooster that crowed when Saint Peter denied Jesus for the third time, the hammer used to drive in the nails and the tip of the spear of Longinus that pierced the side of Jesus. The iconography is typical of German Switzerland and testifies to the strong ties of Ayas with those lands generated by the transit of mules through Montservin. It is significant that a similar representation is present in the Hall of the Quey. The nursing Madonna “Very ancient composition, placed on the eastern side of the Chapel of Magnéaz, interesting for its execution and for the subject, unique in the whole set of images in the territory of Ayas. It depicts the Virgin who, seated on a base, nurses the naked Child. They are crowned on the sides by concentric clouds. The figure is inserted in a frame decorated with floral motifs. Extremely interesting is the chromatic scanning of the horizontal planes and the circularity of the space above. […] Next to this painting there is a representation of Saint Grat, inserted in a second frame of earlier date identical to that which encloses the Madonna with Child; therefore it is likely that next to the representation of the Madonna there was another figure, probably contemporary with the latter, to which the current representation of Saint Grat was later superimposed.” by L. Capra, G. Saglio, Immagini di devozione popolare nel territorio di Ayas. Pitture murali su abitazioni, cappelle e oratories, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century in a Municipality of the Aosta Valley, in “Quaderni di cultura alpina”, Priuli & Verlucca Editori, Ivrea 1993, sheet 17 Saint Grat Saint Grat, first bishop of Aosta “is represented with all the classical iconographic attributes: he carries the staff and episcopal robes, he holds the head of the Baptist which, according to tradition handed down in the Magna Legenda Sancti Grati by the canon Jacques De Cours of the thirteenth century, the bishop would have found in Sebaste in the East, in a well, also represented. With his right hand Saint Grat disperses the threatening clouds of a stormy sky.” by L. Capra, G. Saglio, Immagini di devozione popolare nel territorio di Ayas. Pitture murali su abitazioni, cappelle e oratories, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century in a Municipality of the Aosta Valley, in “Quaderni di cultura alpina”, Priuli & Verlucca Editori, Ivrea 1993, sheet 18 On his left appears the clear sky on the profile of the Towers of Jerusalem, or, according to another possible interpretation, on the profile of the Cime Bianche. It was therefore a wish and a protection for the mule drivers who passed through here with mule caravans heading to Montservin (today the Teodulo Pass), reachable from the dangerous Colle delle Cime Bianche. Below the frame one reads “… Grate protector noster”. The interior The façade faces south and is therefore transverse with respect to Rue della Traversa. The main door opens on it. Upon entering, one notices the main altar in the presbytery, and two side altars: the one on the right is dedicated to Saint Germain, the one on the left to Saint Peter, to whom the chapel was originally dedicated. “In past times a mass was also celebrated in honor of Saint Germain, of whom the chapel possesses an important relic: after the celebration, a blessing was given to the children, accompanied by their mothers, who came from other villages and even from farther away, and the relic was presented to the faithful to be kissed. Precisely because of the presence of this relic of Saint Germain, it has been suggested that the Chapel of Magnéaz was a place à repit, that is, where newborn dead children were brought to be exposed in front of the statue of certain saints so that they would bring them back to life long enough to administer baptism and avoid them being confined to the feared limbo.” by S. Favre, Ayas. Anthropology of a territory. Places, legends, stories, facts, Priuli & Verlucca Editori, 2020, p.80 The main altar from the eighteenth century, in painted and partly gilded wood, is structured with four twisted columns alternating with three niches: in the center the Madonna with Child, with Saint Paul and Saint Barbara on the sides. Above, a niche houses a Saint Peter, seated with tiara and cross, from the sixteenth century. The typology of the statues of Saint Peter and Saint Barbara, like the cross outside, refers to German Switzerland, and they belonged to the fifteenth-century chapel. The altar almost completely hides two sixteenth-century frescoes, depicting the Black Madonna of Oropa and Saint John the Baptist. Between the two, under a slab that formed the mensa of the first chapel, one can glimpse a heavily deteriorated inscription of which only the legible words are Martinus Quey et Antoni. Martin was the son of Claude Quey and in Magnéaz he had his house.

Oven

Oratory of Our Lady of Healing

Oratory of Notre-Dame de la Guérison, fresco by Franz Curta (1864) depicting the Virgin Mary, the Infant Jesus and Saint Anne (inside), Saints Lucy and John the Baptist (on the pillars); on the vault, an inscription reading ‘Ex voto Marie Anne Burgay 1864’

Captain Quey

The son of Jean, a wealthy merchant and mayor of Aosta in 1552, Claude Quey, captain of the Duke of Aosta’s militia, served for many years as a loyal soldier to Dukes Emanuele Filiberto and Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy. As a reward for his services and valour in the First War of Monferrato, in 1614 he was granted a ‘letter of nobility’ by Carlo Emanuele I in Turin, a title which was passed down to his heirs until the family died out. He died around 1635.

Dendrochronology

Wood samples have been taken from a number of log cabins in Ayas for dendrochronological analysis, a method of absolute dating based on the study of trees’ annual growth rings. Among these, the large Cazzette log cabin in Magnéaz was selected; it is a splendid late-medieval example, the timber used in its construction having been dated to 1442–1448.

Quey Room

The Quey Hall Let us try to imagine what the building must have originally looked like… Its constructional and decorative features make it a residence of great value. The walls, made with green magnesian stones from the valley moraines, are plastered on the outside, a sign of wealth and a source of comfort. They consist of two parallel faces filled with rubble and earth. The internal layout was simple: a storage room on the ground floor, the majón (kitchen) and the péyo (living room) on the first floor, and the reception hall on the second floor, which was accessed by a short masonry staircase located on Rue Capitaine Quey, reaching the door that today appears suspended. The arrival of tractors led to its removal. In the attic there was a loft. This and the other floors were served by a spiral staircase located in a viret, the remains of which are still visible beside the small terrace on the valley side, which acts as a buttress to resist the thrust of the facade which, with the loss of the external loggia due to the collapse of its foundation, was in danger of overturning. The house was certainly very luxurious for its time. This can be inferred from the fact that the sala and the majón were heated by two large stone fireplaces in the French style, meaning with a chimney hood, instead of the central hearth in the middle of the room, without smoke outlet, as was then used in rural houses. This is also shown by the double flooring of the first floor, insulated with straw and dung to protect the living spaces from the cold (it should be remembered that there was no stable underneath…), and the wooden lining placed, for the same reason, under the roof slates. Finally, this is demonstrated by the plastering of the rooms: wooden wall coverings, normally used for insulation against the cold, were not considered as “elegant” as plaster used in the palaces of the plains. On the other hand, ordinary mountain houses did not have the thick stone walls with inner fill that, once heated, protected (and still protect) very well from the cold. The windows of the first floor Some details of the decoration indicate the presence of Italian Renaissance influences: for example the soapstone frames of the first-floor windows, decorated with linear carving, lacking the characteristic Gothic ship-keel shape that had long survived in the architecture of Ayas. These frames closely resemble those of the Casa Saluard in Marseiller (Verrayes, Aosta), and many other details also seem to confirm a close derivation of this building from that one. The few historical data found on Jean Quey support this hypothesis. Jean Quey, originally from Ayas, was a wealthy merchant and citizen of Aosta. He became its mayor in 1552, despite the fact that in 1536 he (or someone in his family) had supported the failed uprising in which Calvin attempted to transform the Duchy of Aosta into a Swiss canton. It was he who began the construction of the great Suaz bridge; he was very successful in business and accumulated great wealth. In the third creation of the Conseil de Commis (1555), he was elected among the representatives of the third estate: one of the four who sat opposite twenty-one nobles and ecclesiastics; a great honour, clearly a sign of considerable power. In this rapid social ascent Jean Quey was probably supported by the Saluard family. It was therefore his mercantile relations with Italy and his knowledge of the fortified house of the Saluard in Marseiller that led him to build in his homeland a house with a loggia, like those in Italian merchant cities, and to abandon the Gothic droplet decoration of the windows in favour of a more linear profile, reminiscent of Alberti. The presence of the Savoy knot on the lintel of the mullioned window of the péyo on the first floor (visible from the valley) documents Jean’s link with the Savoy administration: he worked in fact as contractor in the construction of the great fortress of Montmélian in Savoy. The Hall Jean’s son, Claude, was directed towards a military career, the only way, in a world by then closed to commerce such as late-sixteenth-century Aosta, to enrich himself and rise in status. Thus Claude took part in the war in Flanders and when, in April 1559, Duke Emanuel Philibert of Savoy won at Saint-Quentin, he is found among the Aosta gentlemen who distinguished themselves in the battle. His long military career continued equally successfully and on 19 May 1614 Duke Charles Emanuel I rewarded him with a patent of nobility. After Claude’s death, which occurred a few years later, the house passed to his favourite son Paul-Emmanuel, who had followed in his father’s footsteps and become captain of the Challant company. He had two daughters who married men from Ayas. The house thus left the Quey family, which went into rapid decline. A hidden flaw, its partial construction on older foundations, undermined it. The valley facade began to tilt dangerously; the loggia cracked and had to be demolished or collapsed (a graffito suggests 1699 as the year of this event); the first-floor ceiling had to be removed and the openings on that level were filled in to prevent the collapse of the rest of the building. Over time the house was abandoned and the hall reduced to a storage room. The paintings Elena Rossetti Brezzi, author of the monograph La pittura in Valle d’Aosta: tra la fine del 1300 e il primo quarto del 1500, Le Lettere, Florence 1989, writes: “The date 1628 fits perfectly with all the paintings decorating the hall which, although executed with different techniques, can be considered the result of a single decorative campaign and most likely the work of the same hand (cf. the detail of the armour with articulated lamella gauntlet and armguard that appears in both decorations without significant variation). The decoration around the windows is exquisite and can be understood as a revival of the style introduced in the Aosta Valley at the beginning of the 17th century by Pietro Leonardo Roncas (Secretary of State to Charles Emanuel I, a man who lived for a long time in Rome), but the quality and the cultural models adopted by the anonymous artist who worked in Aosta were far more complex and refined than those found in Claude’s house, which is quite natural given the different social standing and networks of the two patrons. Interest in grotesques spread widely, in a way not yet fully studied, in Piedmont following the decorations of the (now destroyed) Great Gallery of the Royal Palace of Turin commissioned by Charles Emanuel I and Catherine of Austria. Claude Quey is therefore up to date and wants in his own house the motifs dictated by the prevailing fashion; he entrusted their execution to an artist who may have worked on the site of Palazzo Roncas, but to whom the patron specifically requested, and not by chance, the inclusion of even a now obsolete arquebus among the weapons. It is difficult to understand why, in the same room, Claude also wanted the representation of the Man of Sorrows (so defined is this iconography of the sacred scene showing Christ laid out on the tomb surrounded by the instruments of the Passion: the column to which he was bound and scourged; the lantern, torch and armour symbolising his arrest in the Garden of Olives; the rooster that crowed three times before Peter denied him; the tongs used to un-nail him from the cross to which he had been affixed with the hammer; the sponge soaked in vinegar on the end of the reed with which he was mockingly given drink; the lance with which Longinus pierced his side and by which he became a saint; the image of Judas who betrayed him; the face imprinted on Veronica’s cloth; the dice with which the soldiers gambled for his tunic; the ladder used to lower him from the cross—as you can see, it includes everything). It is certainly an image of private devotion, and it is surprising to find it in a living hall rather than in a small chapel-like room. In this scene the artist, precise in the depiction of individual objects, shows his inability to arrange them in space; he struggles to render three-dimensionality and to construct perspective (see, in addition to those of the sarcophagus, the problems he has with the cross and the ladder). For this reason the less demanding (on this level) decorations on the eastern wall appear more fascinating, even though everything suggests that the patron paid particular attention precisely to this scene, as shown by all the gold used, which certainly required greater financial effort. As for the cultural formation of this anonymous painter, at present knowledge makes it impossible to say. I am not aware of other works by him in the Aosta Valley (nor in Piedmont). Perhaps he came from beyond the Alps; there is a certain French taste in the framing of the grotesques, as in Palazzo Roncas, but I cannot go further than that.” Finally, it is interesting to note that the subject reappears on the wooden cross outside the Chapel of Magnéaz. The tempera of the Man of Sorrows is dated 1628, where the number two is represented by a Z and the one by a J. A similar spelling appears on the lintel of the door of the church of Antagnod (J839). The use of Z to denote the number two was widespread in German-speaking countries until a few years ago (Z from zwei). Its presence in the tempera could suggest a Walloon origin for its author.