The Castle of Aymavilles is located in the municipality of the same name, a few kilometres from Aosta, in the direction of Cogne. These days there is a movement of travellers, not only from Valle d'Aosta, but also from Italy and abroad, who stop to admire it on their way down from the valley of Cogne. Its appearance is unmistakable. The building with its eighteenth-century façade and crenulated fifteenth-century towers is simple and elegant on the whole.
Its history begins in the 13th century when it was a stronghold of the De Amavilla lords. In the mid-fourteenth century, Aimone of Challant-Aymavilles built a monobloc structure and his son Amedeo of Challant added the four corner towers at the beginning of the fifteenth century. In the mid-fifteenth century Giacomo di Challant created a another habitable storey by raising the towers further and rebuilding the roof with a wooden structure which can still be seen today. The death of Renato di Challant in the mid-16th century marked the beginning of a period of decline, which ended with Baron Joseph-Félix de Challant. He carried out the last major late Baroque intervention at the beginning of the 18th century with the addition of the loggias and stucco decorations. The date of the end of the 18th century work is engraved on the inside wall of the attic, 1728.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Philippe-Maurice de Challant left his inheritance to Teresa de Challant, the bride of Count Cacherano Osasco della Rocca d'Arazzo. From that marriage, Count Vittorio was born, who placed there a rich collection of Italian art, unfortunately dispersed after his death in the mid-nineteenth century. At the end of the 19th century the castle was bought by the Ligurian Bombrini family, who remained the owners until 1970, the year in which it was purchased by the Autonomous Region of Valle d'Aosta. The castle was inaugurated on 21 December 2021 after several years of meticulous restoration work.
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