Saint-Pierre Castle, Aosta Valley

Castello di Saint-Pierre (French: Château de Saint-Pierre) is a late 12th-century castle in Saint-Pierre, Aosta Valley, Italy.

The castle became one of the famous landmarks of the area, together with the castle of Fénis, due to its incredibly picturesque aspect. It contains the Aosta Valley Regional Museum of Natural Sciences. One of the oldest castles in the Aosta Valley is Saint-Pierre, whose existence was first mentioned in a document from 1191. Its first owners, the De Sancto Petro family, who are also responsible for the two towers that are still standing, gave it its name.

The castle was owned by a number of seigniories over the ensuing centuries, including the Lords of Quart (previously de Porta Sancti Ursi), the Savoys, and the Challants, who each had parts of the structure constructed or altered to suit their own requirements until the Roncas family acquired the entire estate in 1600. The castle was enlarged by Pierre-Philibert de Roncas, who turned it into an opulent mansion.

However, after Baron Emanuele Bollati of Saint-Pierre bought the castle in 1873, improvements were made to the castle’s architecture during the end of the 19th century. Due to the previous owners’ years of neglect, the castle was in a very poor state when Baron Bollati hired Piedmontese architect Camillo Boggio to transform it into a vacation home. He oversaw the changes that gave the castle its current, almost fairytale appearance, including the addition of the four ornamental turrets at each corner of the keep.

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