History of the villages of the Entremont district (Valais)
The 28 documented localities of the Entremont district, in the canton of Valais. Each page covers the origin of the name, the main stages of its history and its remains, with sources.
Towns and villages 24
Bagnes
With 28'221 hectares, Bagnes was long the largest municipality in Switzerland, and until 1957 it functioned as a confederation of villages.
VSBourg-Saint-Pierre
Grown up around the abbey of Saint-Pierre du Mont-Joux, recorded from 812/820, this fortified borough on the Great St Bernard road saw Bonaparte's troops pass in May 1800.
VSBruson
Bruson's chapel, erected in 1658, celebrates Saint Michael on 8 May rather than 29 September. According to the elders, the village was almost empty in autumn, when the herders were up at the mayens.
VSChampex-Lac
In 1892 the Hôtel de la Poste launched the growth of Champex-Lac, a resort of the municipality of Orsières on the shore of Lake Champex, where the first Breya chairlift opened in 1952.
VSChampsec
In 1818 the Giétro outburst flood swept away « comme un fêtu de paille » the chapel that the men of Champsec had built in 1684. It was rebuilt on a rock.
VSChemin
On 17 May 1333 Savoy paid a master miner to search for silver at « Chimyn ». On Mont Chemin above Martigny, the villages of Chemin lived from mining and later from the hotel trade.
VSDranse
This hamlet of Liddes built a place of worship against floods in 1758, and in 1960 it received the municipality's first ski tow.
VSFionnay
Once a simple mayen of farmers from Lourtier and Champsec, Fionnay became the first summer resort of the Val de Bagnes in 1890. Its hotels passed to hydroelectric companies in the 1950s and 1960s.
VSLa Fouly
At the foot of Mont Dolent, where Switzerland, France and Italy meet, this former herders' stopping place in the Val Ferret gained its first hotel in 1925.
VSLe Châble
Built at the head of the bridge over the Dranse, Le Châble saw its church half buried in mud by the floods of 1642. The main village of Bagnes grew up around the vidame's seat and the church of Saint-Maurice.
VSLe Levron
For centuries Le Levron, a village of the former municipality of Vollèges now in Val de Bagnes, went to law against the Bagnards over its 20 km bisse.
VSLiddes
In May 1800 the passage of the French Reserve Army caused enormous expenses for this municipality on the Great St Bernard road. Impoverished, part of the population emigrated.
VSLourtier
Nicknamed « the garage » by its critics, Alberto Sartoris's chapel at Lourtier in the upper Val de Bagnes, inaugurated in 1932, is regarded as the first modern religious building in French-speaking Switzerland.
VSOrsières
Near the bridge of Orsières, long the only one over the Dranse, Saracens captured Abbot Majolus of Cluny in 972, on the Great St Bernard road.
VSPraz-de-Fort
Together with Le Chanton and Le Revers, Praz-de-Fort, a village in the municipality of Orsières, was long the main inhabited place of the Val Ferret.
VSSarreyer
Sarreyer, a terrace village of the former municipality of Bagnes, already had 28 households in 1313, and two brothers who survived the 1639 epidemic built its chapel in 1646.
VS · TownSembrancher
At the confluence of the two Dranses, on the Great St Bernard route, the borough received its franchises from Amadeus IV of Savoy in 1239 and from 1359 was the seat of the castellany of Entremont.
VS · Town · Merger 2021Val de Bagnes
Bagnes and Vollèges approved their merger on 10 February 2019 and have formed the municipality of Val de Bagnes since 1 January 2021.
VSVal Ferret
Given in 1189 to the brothers of Mont-Joux, the forest of the Val Ferret set the Great St Bernard hospice against the municipality of Orsières until the buyout of 1894.
VSVens
Below the village of Vens, in the former municipality of Vollèges and now in Val de Bagnes, lead mine galleries were recorded as early as 1783.
VSVerbier
Verbier, a village of the former municipality of Bagnes, had only 27 inhabitants in 1945, five years before the Médran chairlift opened.
VSVersegères
At the Sommet des Versegères, a village of the former municipality of Bagnes, the Easter-week procession stops at an oratory to bless the mountain stream.
VSVichères
Abandoned by its last inhabitants in 1955, Vichères, a hamlet of the municipality of Liddes, was restored for tourism and gave rise to the Vichères-Bavon ski resort.
VSVollèges
At the mouth of the Val de Bagnes, Vollèges lacked water until the Mauvoisin dam of 1958, and quarried its own « pierre de Vollèges » stone.
Sites 4
Château d'Entremont
From its ridge above Sembrancher, the Savoyard castle of Entremont controlled the Great St Bernard road. Destroyed in 1475, it left part of its tower inside the chapel of Saint-Jean.
VS · SiteCrettaz-Polet
Crettaz-Polet, near Sembrancher, occupied from the Middle Neolithic to the end of the Iron Age, has yielded the only Early Iron Age pottery kilns known in Valais.
VS · SiteHospice du Grand-Saint-Bernard
Attested from 1125 on the Great St Bernard Pass, the canons' hospice had seventy-eight hospices, houses, priories and churches in 1177, from England to Sicily.
VS · SiteMauvoisin
At Mauvoisin, at the head of the Val de Bagnes, the Giétro glacier outburst of 16 June 1818 sent 20 million cubic metres of water towards Martigny.