The Maison de Cogne Gérard-Dayné is one of the greatest examples of traditional Aosta Valley architecture. The ancient rural house, traces of which can already be found in 17th-century documents, was donated by the last owners to the municipal administration with the aim of allowing the recovery and enjoyment of this important testimony from times gone by. The particularly complex construction highlights the main aspects of the architecture “wood and stone” and the typical spaces of the Cogne house: the guided tour allows you to admire the cor, a covered internal space that served as an entrance, the beu, a place of domestic life and cohabitation between humans and animals (which remained in Cogne until the 20th century), the mézòn de fouà, in the stone part of the house (pèira), a processing area for milk and food products for the family. The underground cellars show the places where food is stored (cheeses, vegetables, wine) during the long winter months. The large barn, with its imposing structure made of sturdy wooden beams, is used as a space for temporary exhibitions and permanently houses a room dedicated to Cogne’s costume.
The Ceriana Collection is also part of the permanent exhibition at the Maison de Cogne Gérard Dayné: these are ancient ethnographic objects that a loyal Cogne visitor wanted to donate to enrich the museum’s exhibition.
The guided tour, in addition to highlighting the house’s architecture, offers a tale of “life in the past”, helping to understand how our ancestors exploited the spaces of the house and how they lived and survived in the 18th and 19th centuries.
During the summer the house hosts exhibitions of local crafts. The Maison de Cogne Gérard-Dayné is therefore the space for an evocative, one-of-a-kind visit; a reflection on the past and the lives of our ancestors, a memory that evokes emotion.