Valpelline (valley)

Valpelline is one of the side valleys of the Aosta Valley in north-west Italy. It shares its name with one of the communes within its territory (Valpelline) and Valpelline is also one of the names by which the River Buthier is known.

The Valpelline branches from the Great St Bernard Valley near Gignod and rises to Collon Pass, which it shares with Valais, and which is located at the foot of the mountain Grand Combin, whose peak is across the border in Switzerland.

The Valpelline is bathed by the Buthier torrent which is fed by melt-waters of the Tsa de Tsan and Grandes Murailles glaciers.

Valpelline has no convenient crossings to its neighbouring valleys, However the principal passes are as follows:

The Valpelline is known locally in Valdôtain patois as the Coumba frèida (or Fr., Combe froide, literally the cold hollow) due to its particularly harsh climate.

The valley was for a long period a site of exchange—or of conflict—with the neighbouring Valais.

In the Middle Ages the valley was a possession of the lords of Quart, which they granted to the noble family of the district known as La Tour-de-Valpelline (or La-Tour-des-Prés).

On the extinction of the Quart Family in 1377, Valpelline passed to the House of Savoy. In 1612 it was assigned to the Perrone di San Martino, a Piedmontese noble family involved in the exploitation of the mine at Ollomont.

The valley was for many centuries difficult of access: the first carriage road to Bionaz was constructed in 1953.

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