History

The first evidence of La Salle’s history dates back to the Roman occupation of Valle d’Aosta by General Aulus Terentius Varro around 25 BC.
The Valdigne was initially inhabited by populations of Celtic origin who left traces in the patois and in the local toponymy: the Artze path connecting Vedun with Echarlod is, according to tradition, the continuation of the ancient road of the Salassi that crossed the left bank of the Dora Baltea.

In the Middle Ages, Valdigne belonged to the various Counts and Dukes of Savoy, who granted their subjects franchises on which to base the organisation of the nascent rural communities. Each community had to democratically elect its own representatives, mayors and procurators.
Thus, at an unspecified time, the communities of Derby and La Salle were born, with their respective parish priests, cemeteries, fraternities, mayors and schools. There are no historical documents on La Salle until the 18th century: the most significant events concern historical facts affecting the Aosta Valley in general.

The little historical information can be found in the archives of the parish and the bishopric, as those belonging to the municipality were destroyed in the flames that hit the old town hall during the liberation of 1945.

There were several reasons for the outbreak of the plague in the village and its rapid spread: the misery in which the inhabitants of the region were forced to live; the famines that followed one year after another weakened working-age people more and more; the precarious hygienic conditions in which our ancestors were used to live. In addition to this, the population was often in contact with soldiers who passed through the Little and Great St Bernard passes and who were often carriers of germs and diseases of all kinds, including the plague.

The first deaths were recorded in Perloz, but between the summer of 1630 and the first months of 1631, the number of victims increased dramatically in all the parishes. The dead were no longer being counted and when the parish priest of the village was also affected by the disease (out of 90 parish priests, 50 died), the lists remained incomplete.
According to the few information available, there were 1,400 victims in La Salle.

According to a local legend, only seven couples survived the scourge in La Salle. These are commemorated by two small carved wooden paintings hanging from the top of the two columns supporting the triumphal arch, between the main nave and the choir of the church of San Cassiano. The seven angel heads symbolise the seven couples who survived the plague of 1630. The legend goes on to tell of these people who survived the epidemic thanks to the sting of ants: they left their homes and took refuge in the Envers woods where, by rolling naked on the ants’ nests, they absorbed the formic acid that made them immune to the plague.

The consequences of the epidemic were disastrous for the economy of the Valle d’Aosta and especially for La Salle, where the plague had raged more than elsewhere. Families were destroyed and the shortage of labour in the countryside created serious problems that couldn’t be solved in a few years. Subsequently, the great wave of immigrants, mainly from France and Piedmont, ensured the continuation of agricultural activities and helped to repopulate the entire region.

Before the plague, La Salle had 2,200 inhabitants; after the epidemic the number dropped to around 800.
In his work entitled ‘Peste, fame, guerra – Cronache di vita valdostana del secolo XVII’ (Plague, hunger, war – Chronicles of life in Valle d’Aosta in the 17th century), Marco Ansaldo reports concerns about the issue of repopulation: ‘In 1631 the dead were still being counted and a frenzied race to procreate was already underway to repopulate thousands of deserted homes in order to restore labour, continuity and confidence in life. Hundreds of immigrants, called by the Council of Clerks to work the land that had been deserted by labourers, lent a generous hand. Alemannic, Swiss, Savoyard and Lombard blood mixed with Aosta Valley blood…”. Within a few years, the Valdostan communities were repopulated with new lives thanks to the numerous ‘marriage races’ that have been recorded since 1631. “In ten years, thanks to the new births, the population of the Valle d’Aosta returned to the levels existing before the plague.

The victims of the La Salle epidemic of 1630 were buried in a mass grave in the Champ de la Loi, where the parish family home stands today.

In 1950, during the construction of the dunghill of the parish house, the remains of numerous skeletons were found, neatly stacked underground: they were the remains of the victims of 1630. In fact, their bodies were not buried in the parish cemetery, which was too close to the houses, but further away, in the countryside, to avoid any possible contagion of those still healthy.

The passes for France and Switzerland have always made the Aosta Valley a place of passage. However, the part of the region that suffered most from this situation, due to the continuous transit of armies of all kinds that, returning from military campaigns or heading for new battlefields, left behind painful traces of their passage, was the Valdigne.
On several occasions over the centuries, the economy and social life of the community of La Salle felt the effects of this condition.
The first invasion documented in the chronicles of that period was that of the French in 1690-1691, during the war between the King of France Louis XIV and the Duke of Savoy Victor Amadeus II, who made the mistake of signing a treaty of alliance with France’s enemy states.

The Monferrato regiment sent by the Duke in 1690 to reinforce the guard posts behaved very badly and was guilty of looting and destruction. When it went up to La Thuile, it left the village of La Salle in a very bad state.

In 1691, the French occupied the village and the Villair for ten days. When they left, they took many hostages and locked them up in the castle of Chambéry, from which some managed to escape. “An officer by the name of Lepage and 200 dragoons, returning from La Thuile, went into the countryside on the right bank of the Dora to plunder the houses of Laval (La-Haut) behind La Salle, where some people had taken refuge with what they had managed to take from their homes. The soldiers took everything and forced the people they had robbed to bring back their loot.

About 6,000 soldiers of the French army invaded the region, setting fire first to Pont-Serrand in Saint Joseph, then La Thuile, Morgex, La Salle, the villages of Le Pont and Les Champs. Many houses in La Salle were totally burnt or destroyed by the fires set by the French, causing 113 injuries in the village. “Morgex and La Salle appeared very damaged, almost unrecognisable, after the French destroyed and set fire to them in 1691” (De Tillier).

In 1694, during the stay of soldiers from the King of Savoy’s regiments, the inhabitants of La Salle had to put up with the presence of the troops for months. Despite the two hospitals set up in the main town and in Croix-des-Prés, the sick soldiers forced people to stay at home and prevented them from collecting hay and grain left in the countryside.

According to the minutes of the pastoral visit of 1 May 1693, the French soldiers plundered almost all the chapels in the parish: Morgex managed to save a bell by ‘maliciously’ hiding it in the village; the altar in Châtelair was stripped of its decorations and the bell was taken away; in Château, the Lord of Avise managed to save a bell by taking it to his home. The same fate befell the chapels of Challancin, Arbetey, Les Cours and Chabodey. However, the chapel that suffered the most damage, was the Penitents’ chapel in the village.

In the same year, a military hospital and a cemetery were set up in La Salle for the soldiers killed in the conflicts that took place in Savoy during the war declared by the Republicans against the King of Sardinia. On that occasion, too, the soldiers occupied the Chapel of the Penitents.
The following year, the French perpetrated further destruction, but this time the church of La Salle was respected, thanks to the skilful conduct of this parish, indoctrinated by the town’s notables.
When the French arrived, the entire population gathered in the small square next to the church. The people were asked whether it was a feast day or a market day, but both questions were answered in the negative. So why were all those people gathered in the square instead of working or going about their business?

“For the pleasure of seeing the soldiers!” – they replied.
“You will be thirsty,” they continued, “our wine is at your disposal.”
“What strange people,” they said, “such honesty and such mistrust.”

They did not dare to plunder the church.

The history of La Salle does not record any other extraordinary events that took place here. However, the contribution of the municipality during the two world wars cannot be ignored. The town wished to remember the many children who died for their country, because it is to them that we owe all our gratitude: if we have a better life today, in freedom and democracy, it is thanks to their supreme sacrifice.
The beautiful monument erected in the town square in 1923 (inaugurated in April of the same year) and moved to the Parco della Rimembranza, in front of the old town hall, at the end of the Second World War, reminds us of the enormous sacrifice that Italy asked of our families.

The First World War was felt and experienced even more strongly: children were ‘mobilised’ in almost every family and the price paid was very high.