Bard, the stone village in the shadow of the fort

Everyone in Bard looks up towards the fort. The 19th-century fortress that closes the gorge of the Dora Baltea is imposing, restored, full of exhibitions and museums: that is where the coaches and the photos head. But at the foot of the rock, squeezed between the river and the mountain, there is another Bard that almost no one walks through. It is the village, one of the smallest municipalities in Italy, with just under a hundred inhabitants.

The stone village

You enter by a single narrow street, and within a few steps the noise of the fort's visitors dies away. The houses are of grey stone, pressed one against the other, with arched portals and mullioned windows with crossed frames. They are medieval buildings, many datable to between the 15th and 16th centuries, and they still bear the names of the families who lived in them: the Casa del Vescovo, the Casa Valperga, the Casa della Meridiana, the Casa Ciucca. No signs are needed to understand that people have walked here for centuries.

A compulsory gateway

The village grew up along an obligatory passage. Along here ran the ancient Roman road of the Gauls, carved into the rock at the mouth of the valley, and later the Via Francigena of the pilgrims heading south. Bard has always been a gateway, a place where one was forced to stop before pressing on. Today that forced stop has become a choice that few make: most cross the valley by motorway without noticing a thing.

Walking these streets means looking for the details. A coat of arms carved above a lintel, a faded sundial, a worked stone staircase glimpsed through a half-open door. It takes half an hour, but it is a half-hour that deserves to be slow. In autumn the village comes alive for the Marché au Fort, the food and wine fair of Aosta Valley produce; the rest of the year it stays silent and almost private.

The advice

The advice is simple: by all means visit the fort, but set aside time for the village below. Climb and descend its little streets before or after the crowd, on a shoulder-season morning, when the stone is cold and the Gothic windows tell, on their own, all the history that the fort alone cannot explain.

Related guides: Hidden medieval villages in Italy: gems far from the crowds · Little-known castles of Italy: fortresses and manors far from mass tourism · Where to go at Easter without the crowds: villages and weekends in Italy's lesser-known corners.

Getting there

Bard lies in the lower Aosta Valley, at the foot of the fort. By car you take the A5 motorway, exiting at Pont-Saint-Martin if arriving from the south or at Verrès if arriving from Aosta, then continue along the SS26 main road. The nearest station is Hone-Bard, a stone's throw from the village, but on the Ivrea-Aosta line a replacement bus service is currently running due to works on the railway. The reference airport is Turin Caselle.

Practical guides for Torino

• Where to stay in Torino
• What to see in Torino
• Where to eat in Torino
• How to get to Torino