Maison de Cogne Gérard-Dayné

Maison de Cogne Gérard-Dayné is one of the best examples of Aosta Valley traditional architecture. It is a rural house cited in documents that date back 17th century, donated by its last owners to the municipality of Cogne to allow for its renovation and fruition. The building is particularly complex and highlights the main features of “stone and wood” architecture and the traditional spaces of Cogne houses. The guided tour shows the cor, an interior roofed area that was used as the entrance, the beu , where animals and people coexisted in their daily lives (this system has lasted until the end of the 20th century), the mézòn de fouà, in the part of the house made out of stone (pèira), an area where milk and other food products were processed. Food (cheese, vegetables, wine) was kept in the underground cellars during the long winter months. The large barn, with its imposing structure made of wooden beams has been adapted for temporary exhibitions. There is also a room dedicated entirely to the traditional costume of Cogne.

The Ceriana Collection is part of the permanent exhibition of Maison de Cogne Gérard Dayné: antique ethnographic objects bequeathed by an attached visitor of Cogne to enrichen the museum.

The guided visit, as well as explaining the architecture, talks about “life once upon a time”, helping to understand how our ancestors used the different areas of the house and how they lived and survived in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the summertime, many local craftmanship exhibitions are held in the house. Visiting Maison de Cogne Gérard-Dayné is therefore evocative and unique; a reflection about the past and about the lives of our grandparents, a memory that causes emotion.