Bardonecchia

Bardonecchia is divided in two villages: the Borgo Vecchio and the Borgo Nuovo, but its territory also includes some villages that were once autonomous municipalities: Les Arnauds, Melezet, Millaures and Rochemolles. The ancient nucleus of Bardonecchia is constituted by the Borgo Vecchio, gathered around the Parish Church of Sant'Ippolito characterized by the feature of having two bell towers. The interior preserves wooden furniture of merit as the ancient fifteenth-century choir purchased from the Abbey of Novalesa while the seventeenth-century retable of the high altar is in the style of the workshop of Jacques Jesse of Embrun. On the square of the Church overlooks the Civic Museum, the ancient seat of the Municipal House, which hosts on two floors the collection of testimonies of culture local material: furniture, tools, traditional costumes, antiquities of religious character.

To dominate the valley of Bardonecchia is the Tur of Amun (XIV century), one of the most significant archaeological complex high medieval Susa Valley. At this place you anchor the historical figure legendary François De Bardonnèche, a local feudal lord who inspired legends and books. From Borgovecchio via Ponte delle Tre Croci you can reach directly the surroundings of Les Arnauds and Melezet with walk of the channel, whose water a time served to feed the machinery for the work of the Frejus Tunnel and today is enriched with wooden installations of contemporary art. The conca of Bardonecchia is also known for the extraordinary cycles of frescoes and wooden retàble that decorate the chapels of its surroundings: the retable (XVII sec.) of San Lorenzo in Les Arnauds, frescoes (XV-XVI sec.) of the Chapel of Notre Dame du Coignet, garlands of master carvers of Melezet (XVII-XVIII) of the parish church of Sant'Antonio Abate, the frescoes (15th century) of the chapel of San Sisto at Pian del Colle, the retable of the parish church of Saint Andrew the Apostle to Millaures and frescoes (15th century) of the chapel of the SS.Andrea and Giacomo to Horres, frescoes (XV and XVI sec.) of the pylon of Pra Lavin and the parish church of San Pietro in Rochemolles.

From the historic center is also accede to the two valleys of Rho and Frejus, to the homonymous Grange and to the hamlets while the hills namesakes, practicable on foot or by mountain bike or on horseback, connect Bardonecchia the town of Modane, first French center at the outlet of the Frejus tunnel. The works for the construction and the inauguration of the 1871 the railway tunnel of Frejus changed the landscape and decreed the birth of the new village and tourism. With mountaineering and skiing Bardonecchia (undertaking in 1901 Adolfo Kind to mount Tabor) became one of the hearts most important tourist attractions of the Alps: tourist destination and resort, saw a strong building expansion with the construction of large hotels, villas in Liberty style and the Palazzo delle Feste, as a fruit of the great protagonists of the international architectural culture as Carlo Mollino, Gino Levi-Montalcini, Mario cap and Carlo and Paul Ceresa. Today it is a tourist town of mountain that animates both in summer and in winter with the ski slopes of the Colomion and Campo Smith or the Jafferau, but also with calendars rich of events of international significance.