Medieval tower, the Tour Fromage, in Aosta, Valle d’Aosta, Italy. The tower is supported on one side by Aosta’s city walls.
Aosta, Valle d’Aosta, Italy: medieval tower, Tour Fromage, built in the 1100s. The tower gets its name from the noble De Casei family (later gallicized to Fromage) which occupied it in the middle ages. Situated north of Porta Praetoria, in the archaeological area of Aosta’s Roman theatre, the square tower is supported on one side by Aosta’s city walls, and on the other by the agger (Ancient Roman linear mound or embankment). The Tour Fromage is first cited in a document from 1191, with which Thomas I of Savoy returned the tower to Bishop Gualberto. Another document from 1253 attests that Giovanni Casei is authorised by Giacomo di Quart to pay feudal homage to the bishop for possession of the tower. In the 1400s, the last heir of the Casei family, Jeannette du Fromage, married Claude Vaudan, and the tower became the property of the Vaudan family. Among anecdotes linked to the tower, is an official lunch held there in 1549 in honour of Ferrante I Gonzaga, governor of Milan, on a mission to Valle d'Aosta on behalf of Emperor Charles V. Since 1975 the Tour Fromage has been the home of major events and art exhibitions. Augusta Praetoria (modern Aosta) was a settlement of the Salassi conquered by Rome in 25 BC From 24 BC a colony of 3,000 Roman military veterans occupied the city of Augusta Praetoria Salassorum and it became the capital of the province Alpes Graies from 11 BC. Aosta is now capital of Italy’s Valle d’Aosta region.
Size: 2611px × 3885px
Location: Tour Fromage, Aosta, Valle d’Aosta, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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