Issogne Castle Issogne Castle is a castle in Issogne in the Aosta region of northwestern Italy . It is one of the most famous manors of the Val d ' Aosta and is located on the right bank of the Dora Baltea at the centre of the inhabited area of Issogne . As a seigniorial residence of the Renaissance , the Castle has quite a different look from that of the austere Castle of Verrès , which is located on the opposite bank of the river . Issogne Castle is most noteworthy for its fountain in the form of pomegranate tree and its highly decorated portico , a rare example of medieval Alpine painting , with its frescoed cycle of scenes of daily life from the late Middle Ages . History . Middle ages . The earliest mention of the castle of Issogne is in a Papal bull issued by Pope Eugene III in 1151 , which refers to a fortified building at Issogne , the property of the Bishop of Aosta . Some walling discovered in the cellars of the current castle may be evidence of a Roman villa , dating from the 1st century BC , on the site . Tensions between the Bishop of Aosta and the De Verrecio family , lords of the nearby town of Verrès , reached boiling point around 1333 , when the castle of Issogne , the episcopal seat , was attacked and damaged by fire . Issogne remained the seat of the bishop until 1379 , when the bishop of Aosta submitted to the jurisdiction of the then lord of Verrès , Ibleto di Challant . Ibleto transformed the episcopal stronghold into an elegant princely residence in Gothic style , with a series of towers and buildings enclosed by an encircling wall . When Ibleto died in 1409 , the feud and castle of Issogne passed to his son Francesco di Challant , who in 1424 received the title of Count of Challant from the Duke of Savoy . Francesco died in 1442 , leaving no male heir . A long succession struggle between Francesco ' s daughter Caterina and her cousin Giacomo di Challant Aymaville was won by Giacomo , who thus became the second Count of Challant and the new lord of Issogne . Renaissance . From about 1480 , further alterations were made to the Castle by Giacomo ' s son Luigi di Challant , and continued after his death in 1487 by his cousin , the prior Giorgio di Challant Varey , to whom Giacomo ' s wife Marguerite de la Chambre had granted custody of his sons Filiberto and Carlo . Giorgio had new wings erected to connect the already existing buildings , unifying the complex into a single horseshoe shape surrounding a central courtyard . The decorations of the portico and the celebrated pomegranate fountain date to this period . The Castle hosted many illustrious guests , including the future emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg as he returned to Germany in 1414 , and King Charles VIII of France in 1494 . Work on the Castle ended with the death of Giorgio di Challant in 1509 . Filiberto di Challant became the new lord of Issogne , and made the Castle a residence for himself , his wife Louise d ' Aarberg and his son Renato , under whom the Castle reached its greatest splendour and hosted a rich and refined court . Decline and rebirth . Renato di Challant left no male heir at his death in 1565 . His possessions passed to Giovanni Federico Madruzzo , husband of Renato ' s daughter Isabella , giving rise to an inheritance dispute between the Madruzzo family and Isabella ' s cousins of the Challant family that lasted for more than a century . The lordship of Issogne and its Castle passed from the Madruzzo family to the Lenoncourt family , then in 1693 to Cristina Maurizia Del Carretto di Balestrina , and was finally returned to the Challant family in 1696 . In 1802 , the last count of Challant , Giulio Giacinto , died , and the Challant family was extinguished . The Castle , already abandoned for some years , fell into decay and its furniture was removed . In 1872 the owner of the Castle , Baron Marius de Vautheleret , was forced to sell it at auction . It was acquired by the Turin painter Vittorio Avondo , who restored it , furnishing it with some of its original furniture bought back from the antique market , and with copies of furniture of the period . Avondo donated the Castle to the Italian state in 1907 ; in 1948 it passed to the Valle d ' Aosta region . The Castle may be visited by guided tour . Interior of the Castle . From the exterior , the Castle looks like a fortified residence of fairly unprepossessing appearance , without any particular decoration , with angular turrets a little higher than the rest of the building . The Castle is situated at the centre of the inhabited area of Issogne . The Castle was built to a quadrangular plan , three sides of which are occupied by the building and the fourth , oriented towards the south , comprises a " giardino all ' italiano " , enclosed within a surrounding wall . The courtyard and portico . The internal courtyard , enclosed within the three sides of the building , and the garden form one of the most interesting spaces of the Castle . At one time , one reached this space by passing from the countryside through principal gate and under a portico . Today , for practical reasons , the secondary entrance on the west side is used . This entrance faces an expansive field . On the facades that face the courtyard , one finds the so - called " miroir pour les infants de Challant " , a series of frescoed heraldic arms that show the diverse branches of the Challant family and the principal matrimonial alliances of the house . The " miroir " was created in order to preserve a record of the family history and to transmit it to future generations . The surrounding wall of the garden , on the other hand , was decorated with monochromatic images of legends and heroes of antiquity , now unfortunately almost entirely obliterated . At the centre of the courtyard , one finds the celebrated ' pomegranate fountain ' . From the octagonal stone bowl of the fountain emerges a pomegranate tree made of wrought iron from which jets of water are sprayed . Strangely , although the fruit of the tree is clearly to be understood as that of the pomegranate the leaves , perhaps for symbolic reasons intended by the artist , are those of another tree - the oak . Giorgio di Challant probably had the fountain constructed as a wedding gift for the wedding of his favourite , Filiberto di Challant , when Filiberto married Louise d ' Aarberg in 1502 . It appears that the tree is to be read symbolically as the expression of the desire to unite the fertility and unity of the family represented by the pomegranate , with its seed - filled fruit , with the strength and antiquity signified by the oak . Amongst the branches of the pomegranate - oak , and somewhat difficult to discern , tiny dragons have been inserted . The east side of the courtyard is occupied by the portico with its round arches and cross - vaults . The principal entrance of the Castle opens onto this portico and the interior of the building is nowadays also reached from this portico . The geometric decoration of the ribbing of the cross - vaults is typical of the rate of the fifteenth century . The lunettes of the portico are decorated with frescoes giving realistic and humorous depictions of scenes daily life and the trades of the period . They represent an important iconographic testament to life between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries . The ' lunette of the guard house ' shows some soldiers , accompanied by some prostitutes , seated at a table and intent on playing cards or tric - trac . Their weapons and armour ( including cuirasses , crossbows and halberds ) are hung up on a rack attached to the wall . In the ' lunette of the bakery ' , recently kneaded bread is being pushed into an oven ; a butcher turns meat on a spit while a cat tries to steal it from him . In the ' lunette of the tailor ' s shop ' , pieces of cloth are measured and cut , while on the shelves of the rear of the apothecary ' s shop , numerous jars of herbs and other medicines are shown . The ' lunette of the market ' shows a fruit and vegetable market busy with numerous customers and vendors dressed in costumes of the period . Lastly , in the ' lunette of the small goods seller ' s shop ' , some forms of the typical Val d ' Aosta " fontina " cheese are shown ; these are considered to the oldest representations of this cheese . Besides their æsthetic function , these frescoes probably have a celebratory function , and are probably intended to show the abundance and peace obtained in the region thanks to the leadership of the lord of the Castle . The entire cycle has been attributed to an artist known as ' maestro Colin ' due to a graffito in the ' lunette of the guard house ' that identifies ' Magister Collinus ' as the author of the work . The same artist is known as the author of some paintings in the chapel on the first floor of the Castle . The ground floor . The Castle comprises a total of about fifty rooms , although only about ten of them may visited with the guided tour . A door in the portico leads to the dining room , roofed by a vault and furnished with nineteenth - century furniture that Vittorio Avondo had made on the basis of Renaissance models . The dining room was joined to the kitchen by means of a service - hatch . The kitchen is divided into two parts by a wooden grate , creating two distinct spaces probably originally intended for the preparation of different types of food . The larger space , adjacent to the dining room , is provided with a large fireplace and an oven , while the smaller part includes a fireplace of smaller dimensions and a sink . On the northern side , next to the staircase that leads to the second floor , one finds the so - called ' hall of justice ' or ' lower halls ' , the principal presentation space of the Castle . It is a large hall on a rectangular plan , with the walls completely covered in a fresco of a fictive loggia with columns of marble , alabaster and transparent crystal . Scenes of the hunt , courtly life and northern landscapes are represented . The cycle of decoration culminates with the judgement of Paris , in which the commissioner of the work , Giorgio di Challant , is actually represented as Paris . The frescoes of this hall , probably completed before the death of Giorgio di Challant in 1509 , have been attributed to the Master of Wuillerine , an artist thought to have been of the Franco - Flemish school , as may be deduced from the presence in the landscapes of houses with sharply - pitched roofs and windmills of the type typical in northern Europe . The Master of Wuillerine is also the author of an " ex voto " for the collegiate church of Sant ' Orso at Aosta . The ceiling is of wood with the trusses left exposed . Placed along the walls on the long sides of the hall are placed carved wooden stalls , nineteenth - century recreations of the late - Gothic originals conserved in the Museo Civico of Turin . The rear wall of the hall is pierced by a large stone fireplace decorated by a griffin and a lion that hold the arms of the Challant family aloft . The other rooms of the ground floor , which may not be visited , house the dispensary of the Castle , service rooms for the use of the kitchen ( including a small goods store ) , the prisoner , the room reserved for the use of pilgrims , and rooms for the falconer , the guards , as well as other service rooms . The first floor . The first floor of the Castle contains the rooms of the lords of the manor . They were also adapted by Vittorio Avondo when he acquired the Castle in the 19th century to his own personal use . One reaches this floor by means of a stone spiral staircase adjoining the ' hall of justice ' . The same spiral staircase also provides access to the rooms of the ground floor as well as directly to the courtyard . The staircase if formed from a series of stone steps of trapezoidal shape . The wider part of the step is immured into the wall and the narrower part finished with a cylindrical element . Overlapping vertically in a series of steps , these cylindrical elements form a central column that give the staircase a significant static strength . The ceiling of the ramp is created by leaving the lower surface of the upper steps exposed , thus giving the appearance of a continuous ribbon that draws one on as one ascends the staircase . One of the first rooms that one encounters as one climbs the staircase is the so - called ' chamber of ' Marguerite de la Chambre ' . This was the private room first of Marguerite de la Chambre , wife of Luigi of Challant , and then of Mencia di Braganza , the wife of Renato di Challant . The room is covered by a wooden ceiling with exposed trusses . At the top of the wall , and located in the spaces between the exposed trusses , a frieze showing Marguerite ' s arms can be found . The furnishings of the room include a large stone fireplace and a canopied bed , a nineteenth - century copy of an original to be found in the Castle of Ussel . Next to the bedchamber can be found the private oratory of Marguerite de la Chambre , a small square room covered by a cross vault . This oratory is entirely covered in fresco , with scenes showing the Assumption of the Virgin , the martyrdom of St Catherine and St Margaret . One of these frescoes shows Marguerite herself praying in the company of her two daughters - in - law and her three sons . The entire cycle was repainted in 1936 . Next to Marguerite ' s room , and accessible either through it or by means of the staircase , is the large rectangular hall covered with a wooden ceiling called the ' chambre de Savoie ' ( the Savoy Chamber ) in the inventory compiled at the death of Renato di Challant in 1565 . At the back of this hall there is a large stone fireplace upon which are depicted the arms of the Savoy family , after which the room was originally named , and the united arms of the Challand and La Palud families , brought together by virtue of the wedding of Amadeo di Challant Verey and Anne de La Palud , parents of the Prior Giorgio di Challant . The furnishings of this room reflect its organisation in the nineteenth century by Vittorio Avono , who displayed his collection of antique arms and armour him ; for this reason , the room has been called the ' hall of arms ' . Completing the furnishing of the room is a series of pieces of furniture that are nineteenth - century copies of Late Gothic originals . The last space that may be visited on the first floor is the chapel , situated in the eastern wing of the Castle , above the portico of the courtyard . This is a long and narrow room , covered by a series of cross - vaults that divide the space into five bays . A wooden railing divides the room into two spaces , thus probably separating the lords of the manner from their services . The wooden stalls in this room , placed against the wall , are nineteenth - century copies that Vittorio Avondo had made , while the winged altar is original to the Castle , having been made at the start of the sixteenth century . Avondo bought this altar back on the antique market after it had been sold by the previous proprietors of the manor . The wings of the polyptych and the frescoes of the chapel , showing scenes of the Nativity , the Prophets , the Apostles and the Doctors of the Church , have been attributed to Master Colin , the same artist who created the lunettes of the portico in the courtyard and who had worked on the decoration of the collegiate church of Sant ' Orso di Aosta , of which Giorgio di Challant was prior . Among the spaces that cannot be visited on the guided tour there are the private rooms of Renato di Challant , of his daughters Filiberta and Isabella , of Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo ( uncle of Giovanni Federico Madruzzo , the husband of Isabella di Challant ) and their antechambers and access spaces . The second floor . The second floor is reached by continuing to ascend the stone spiral staircase . Corresponding to the rooms of Marguerite de la Chambre we find those spaces reserved to Giorgio di Challant . One of Giorgio ' s rooms , also known as the ' Camera di S . Maurizio ' because of the coffered ceiling , the coffers of which contain the cross of the Order of Cavaliers of S . Maurizio , is furnished in a way corresponding to the furnishings of Marguerite ' s room underneath it . The room features a canopied bed of the sixteenth century and a credenza and a commode made in the nineteenth century at the direction of Avondo but in the late Gothic style . The room is warmed by a large stone fireplace decorated with the arms of Giorgio di Challant upheld by a griffin and a lion . From the room of Giorgio di Challant , one enters his private oratory , located again in correspondence to that of Marguerite . This , too , is a small space on a quadrangular plan , covered with a cross vault and completely frescoed . The frescoes , the work of the same anonymous Northern artist who decorated Marguerite ' s chapel , show the scene of the crucifixion , a pietà , and the entombment of Christ . Giorgio , the commissioner of the work , is depicted kneeling at the foot of the cross . As with many other paintings in the manor , the frescoes of Giorgio ' s oratory were repainted during a restoration in 1936 . From the principal staircase , one reaches the so - called ' Hall of the King of France ' , situated next to the rooms of Giorgio di Challant and over the ' hall of arms ' . Its name would seem to have derived from probably having been the room in which Charles VIII of France stayed during his passage through Italy in 1494 . In the sixteenth century , this was the wedding chamber of Renato di Challant and his wife Mencia . The room is covered by a coffered ceiling and is warmed by a fireplace decorated with the lilies of the royal arms of France . The room is furnished with furniture in part bought back by Avondo , as for example the canopied bed with the arms of the Challant Aymaville family acquired from an Ussel peasant , and in part by nineteenth - century reconstructions . Passing through the room of the King of France and through a series of access rooms , one reaches the ' Chamber of the Tower ' , situated in the north - west corner of the manor in the most ancient part of the Castle . The different windows of the room permitted a view of the Castles of Arnad and Verrès as well as of the villa at Challand . This space was probably used as a signalling tower . In case of danger , the lords of manor would have been able to take securer refuge in the more easily defended Castle of Verrès . To reach the last room that can be visited on this floor , it is necessary to pass through a loggia covered with a cross vault . This last room is located at the south - west extremity of the Castle . In an inventory of 1565 , it is called the ' Chamber of the Emperor ' , probably in honour of the stay of the Emperor Sigismond of Luxemburg in 1414 . The room is now called the ' Chamber of the Little Countess ' in honour of the countess Isabella di Challant , the daughter of Renato di Challant and Mencia di Braganza . It is furnished with a sixteenth - century bed of Tyrolese origin , reconstructed furniture commissioned by Avondo in the nineteenth century and a stone fireplace decorated with the arms of Giorgio di Challant . In the eastern wing of the Castle , which may not be visited , one finds a loggia roofed with a cross vault and positioned in a location corresponding to the chapel , some rooms and access spaces , and the stairs that lead to the roof of the castle . According to a legend , the ghost of Bianca Maria Gaspardone would appear on the roof on moonlit nights . Gaspardone was the first wife of Renato di Challant . Gaspardone abandoned her marriage Renato after only some months , having become tired of the long absences of her husband . She was subsequently condemned to death for the assassination of her lover Ardizzino Valperga and executed at Milan in 1526 . The graffiti . One of the characteristic features of the Castle of Issogne , apart from the famous frescoes and the pomegranate fountain , is the numerous graffiti that have been left in the course of centuries by visitors to and guests of the Castle , the servants and lords of the manor themselves . These graffiti have been preserved because the Castle has never undergone major change , and they provide valuable evidence about daily life in the Castle . These graffiti , usually incised on the walls , are present throughout the Castle but in particular are visible in the portico of the courtyard , in the corridors , and in the embrasures of the doors and windows . The graffiti are mostly in French , Latin or Italian , and amongst them one finds visitors ' reflections on how sad or happy they are to be leaving the Castle , a great number about life or money , confessions of being in love , and mocking jibes . The frescoed lunettes of the portico show , in addition to the signature of the painter Master Colin , comments on one or other of the professions depicted , while in the gallery that leads from the ' Chamber of the Little Countess ' , one may read an epitaph for the death of Count Renato di Challant ( ' XI julii 1565 / obiit Renatus / comes de Challant ' , i . e . ' On the 11th of July 1565 , Renato , count of Challant , died ' ) and expressions of sadness on the occasion of the anniversary of that date .