History of the villages of the Martigny district (Valais)
The 30 documented localities of the Martigny 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 26
Bovernier
In the Dranse defile at the entrance to the Entremont, a village in the path of the Giétro outbursts that devastated the valley down to Martigny in 1595 and 1818.
VSBranson
A wine village of Fully, Branson has only been lived in all year round since the 20th century. Before that, people from Entremont and Bagnes came only for the vines, carnival and the grape harvest.
VSCharrat
A treaty on the Rhône dikes, signed with Martigny in 1324, brought Charrat into the episcopal castellany. In 1948 a dike breach turned the plain into a vast lake.
VSChiboz
At 1'350 m above Fully, the mayen of Chiboz is lived in all year round. Its grain mill, fed by a bisse, was rebuilt after an avalanche.
VSEcône
On 30 June 1988, before 7'000 to 8'000 pilgrims, Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops at Ecône without the Pope's consent. This estate in Riddes had belonged to the canons of the Great St Bernard since about 1302.
VSFully
Long given over to alpine pastures, chestnut trees and vines, Fully won its plain from the Rhône, embanked from 1862 to 1879, and planted it with asparagus, strawberries and fruit trees.
VSIsérables
Clinging to a very steep slope above Riddes, the village was linked to the plain only by a mule track until one of the canton's first cable cars arrived in 1942.
VSLa Bâtiaz
At the foot of the castle of the bishops of Sion, burnt by Georges Supersaxo in 1518, La Bâtiaz was a municipality in its own right from 1845 to 1956 before joining Martigny.
VSLa Tzoumaz
Once called Mayens-de-Riddes, the mayens of La Tzoumaz became a resort with a drag lift built in 1950. The Bisse de Saxon, the longest in Valais, runs through them.
VSLe Guercet
During the Second World War, iron ore from the Mont-Chemin came down by cable car to Le Guercet, a quarter of Martigny that received a chapel in 1869.
VSLes Rappes
Centre of the castellany of Martigny after 999, Les Rappes controlled the western approach to the bishops' castle of La Crête, known as Saint-Jean.
VSLes Valettes
In Les Valettes, a village in the municipality of Bovernier, a one-kilometre road opened the Durnand gorges to visitors in 1876, two years after their company was founded.
VSLeytron
Its vineyard accounts for one seventh of the Valais total. Long attached to Saillon, Leytron rises from the Rhône plain up to the resort of Ovronnaz.
VSLitroz
At Litroz, a Second World War fort was dug into a rock face that rises 300 metres above the Tête-Noire gorges.
VS · TownMartigny
At the bend of the Rhône, the old Gaulish Octodurus, later Forum Claudii Vallensium, Roman chief town of the Valaisans, where the first known bishop of Valais is attested in 381.
VSMartigny-Bourg
In the 14th century Martigny-Bourg had 420 inhabitants, more than Martigny-Ville, and it was a separate municipality from 1841 to 1964.
VSMartigny-Combe
A castle of the bishops of Sion stood on the Saint-Jean hill. Split from Martigny in 1841, the municipality climbs from the Rhône plain to over 2'700 m.
VSMartigny-Croix
In the 13th century the noble family of Martigny lived in the Vidondé house above La Croix, today the chief town of Martigny-Combe.
VSOvronnaz
At the mayens of Ovronnaz, on the mountain of Leytron, there were already hotels and guesthouses around 1933, long before the thermal baths opened in 1990.
VSPlan-Cerisier
At Les Ecottins, above Plan-Cerisier, a hamlet of Martigny-Combe, the people of Vallorcine kept their vineyard mazots until 1928.
VSRavoire
Ravoire is not a village but a whole hillside of Martigny-Combe, where the last bear in the area was caught in 1840.
VSRiddes
In the Middle Ages the great toll bridge over the Rhône made Riddes a military and commercial crossing point. The municipality now comprises Riddes, Auddes, Ecône and La Tzoumaz.
VS · TownSaillon
Marble from Saillon decorated Charles Garnier's Paris Opera. Above the fortified borough rises the Bayart tower, built in 1261-1262 under the Savoys.
VSSaxon
Below the keep of its castle, the old castellany borough became a spa famous for its casino in the 19th century, then a centre of Valais fruit growing.
VSTrient
In the second half of the 19th century the people of this village on the Forclaz road cut ice from the Trient glacier, alongside livestock farming.
VSVison
Recorded as early as 1052, Vison, a village of the former municipality of Charrat now in Martigny, saw a fire started at its bread oven devastate the village in 1892.
Sites 4
Casino de Saxon
Born of the Saxon baths and open only to foreigners, the casino welcomed Garibaldi and Dostoevsky. It had to close in 1877, after the Federal Constitution banned games of chance.
VS · SiteChâteau de Saxon
A round tower from the late 13th century and a Romanesque chapel, the only remains of the Savoyard castle of Saxon, stand among apricot orchards above the Rhône valley.
VS · SiteSorniot
On the Hauts de Fully, at 2'064 m, the Sorniot hut grew out of a goal the Ski-Club Chavalard had set itself in 1937 and only achieved in 1969.
VS · SiteTour Bayart et château de Saillon
The Bayart tower, raised in 1261-1262 on the curtain wall of the Savoyard castle of Saillon, rose 70 feet above the walls and cost 180 livres of Saint-Maurice.