Church of Saint Mary

Not far away from the village of Villeneuve and the medieval castle of Châtel Argent, the church of St. Mary stands in a magnificent position, overlooking the vineyards of Aymavilles, Mount Emilius and Aosta. At a glance, you can see the roaring waters of the Dora Baltea and the sky caressing the great mountains. Welcome to a place of great energy where there once was an early Christian church with a baptismal font recovered during restoration work. As testified by a papal bull of 1184, the church of St. Mary was an ‘ecclesia’, thus already a parish seat. A meeting place and a place of worship for the Villeneuve community throughout the Middle Ages, the Romanesque-style church sank into seclusion at the end of the 18th century when the Royale Délégation decided that a new church needed to be built in the centre of the village. And so it was, in fact in 1792 the new parish church was erected on the site of the old hospital. Don't miss the station with the interactive video that tells the history of this place.