Etroubles

Etroubles is a picturesque village in the middle valley of the Great St Bernard, halfway between Aosta and the top of the pass and a few kilometres from the tunnel entrance on the Italian side.

In Roman times, it was the main centre of the Great St Bernard Valley. The village was called Restapolis and it was probably here that the garrison of the border troops of the Route des Gaules, the Roman road that linked Cisalpine Gaul to Transalpine Gaul through the Aosta Valley, overwintered.

In the Middle Ages, Etroubles was a stopover on the Via Francigena, a pilgrimage route linking Canterbury, England, to Rome via France and Switzerland.

Since 2005, the village has become an open-air museum. Numerous works of art are on display in the alleys as part of a project to revive the local economy after the closure of the ski facilities. This project was co-financed by the European Union and developed in collaboration with the Gianadda Foundation in Martigny (Switzerland).