Valtournenche

Introduction

It is the main commune in the Matterhorn valley; it is divided into numerous villages: the main town, Paquier, is located at 1528 m above sea level. The earliest traces of human settlement date back to prehistoric times, but it was in the Middle Ages that the area acquired its first importance: in fact, in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Teodulo pass, located at an altitude of 3322 m, was also passable by cattle, with the consequent influx of much of the commercial traffic that interested Valtournenche, the Ayas and Gressoney valleys and the corresponding Swiss valleys on the opposite side of the Alps.

Description

But it is the history of mountaineering linked to the conquest of the Matterhorn peak that launched the municipality of Valtournenche among the great Alpine tourist resorts. The first by the Englishman Whymper, who preceded by two days the Valdostan Jean-Antoine Carrel, and the consequent flood of ink poured over the affair made the Breuil basin known as early as 1865. The following year, the first hotel was built where the much-discussed ski resort of Cervinia would later grow up. It is the 'hamlet' of Valtournenche that has become more famous than its main town: 1934 construction of the carriage road; 1936 first ski lifts; post-war wild urbanisation. Now Breuil has become 'Cervinia', a town of dubious aesthetics, but with a ski area that counts 400 km of slopes, always very well maintained and among the best snow-covered in the Valle d'Aosta, practicable in part even in summer thanks to agreements with the nearby Swiss resort of Zermatt.