Sarre Royal Castle

Sarre Castle (Italian: Castello di Sarre, French: Château de Sarre) is a castle located in Sarre, Aosta Valley, Italy.

News of a fortified house or perhaps a simple tower guarding the territory dates back to the 13th century. There is evidence that in 1242, the building hosted an important meeting between Amadeus IV, Count of Savoy and Godefroy I of Challant to agree on how to counter the rebellion of Hugues of Bard, the local lord. This alliance resulted in the assignment of the castle to his nephew Jacques of Bard, who was uninvolved in the revolt, along with the title of Count of Sarre, making him the founder of a new dynasty.

After the Sarre lineage became extinct, in 1364 Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy granted the fief and its fortified house to Henri of Quart. However, upon his death in 1377, the castle returned to the House of Savoy, who entrusted it to the new feudal lord Thibaud de Montagny only in 1405.

From then on, the castle saw the succession of various noble families, including the barons Genève-Lullin, the Leschaux, the La Crête, the Roncas, and the Rapet.

In 1708, the castle was purchased by Jean-François Ferrod d'Arvier, an ambitious man who had amassed wealth through military supplies and the exploitation of copper mines in Ollomont. To showcase his prosperity, he had the castle entirely rebuilt, giving it its current appearance, sparing only the tower from reconstruction. However, in 1730, following his financial collapse, a mortgage on the castle allowed the previous owners, the legitimate heirs of the Rapet family, to reclaim the manor. Later, ownership passed to the Nicole de Bard family and then to the Gerbore family.

The castle became the property of the House of Savoy in 1869 when King Victor Emmanuel II acquired it, also assuming the title of Count of Sarre. He commissioned further expansions, the elevation of the central tower, and the construction of the stables, aiming to transform the castle into one of his primary seasonal hunting residences. The "Roi Chasseur" (King Hunter) frequented the castle often due to the important hunting expeditions in the nearby valleys of Cogne, Valsavarenche, and Rhêmes that once constituted his personal hunting reserve and are now part of the vast Gran Paradiso National Park.

Text adapted from “Sarre Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sarre Royal Castle ranks #3,773 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #297 of the 487 mapped in Italy. Founded 1708, it is older than 22% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 556 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,411 times in the last 60 days, more than 58% of the atlas. Wikidata records about 38,000 visitors in 2022. 8 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Turin, 78 km away. It is one of the 16 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Aosta Valley. It is stop 5 of 18 on the Aosta Valley castle route, Aosta to Ivrea. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗