History of the villages of the Saint-Maurice district (Valais)
The 27 documented localities of the Saint-Maurice 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 22
Alesse
Mountain hamlet long disputed between Collonges and Dorénaz, awarded in 1841 to the municipality of Dorénaz and linked to the plain by cable car since 1958.
VSCollonges
A village that took the place of old Arbignon, probably abandoned because of the floods of the Aboyeu, and that forms the parish of Outre-Rhône with Dorénaz.
VSDaviaz
On the slope above Massongex, Daviaz long held nearly half of the municipality's inhabitants, because the Rhône prevented any development of the plain.
VSDorénaz
From 1855 to 1953 Dorénaz worked the La Méreune coal mine, at around 1'578 m above the Rhône.
VSEpinassey
A 17th-century tradition saw in Epinassey the ancient Epaône, a city destroyed from top to bottom by a flood of water.
VSEvionnaz
According to tradition, the Tauredunum landslide buried the Roman settlement of « Epanum » here. A shaft over 30 m deep, uncovered in 1923, was attributed to it.
VSFinhaut
Village in the upper Trient valley on the French border, separated from Salvan in 1649, which became a resort with the Martigny-Chamonix railway and is home to the Barberine and Emosson dams.
VSGueuroz
This hamlet in the municipality of Vernayaz gave its name to the reinforced concrete arch bridge completed in 1934, which stands 187 m above the floor of the Trient gorge.
VSLa Rasse
Hamlet of the municipality of Evionnaz threatened in 1636 by the Marre torrent, which was then renamed Saint-Barthélemy after a procession from Saint-Maurice.
VSLe Châtelard
Only a customs post with a fortified gate until the 19th century, this hamlet in the municipality of Finhaut became the international stop of the Martigny-Châtelard line and the foot of the Emosson funicular.
VSLe Trétien
Three bridges from different periods span the Triège gorge below this hamlet in the municipality of Salvan, built as three clusters on separate terraces.
VSLes Granges
From 1926 to 1992 a funicular climbed from Vernayaz to this hamlet in the municipality of Salvan, where the Dailley gorge trail now begins.
VSLes Marécottes
In 1895 Guglielmo Marconi carried his receiver to a property at the top of Les Marécottes. The hamlet in the municipality of Salvan later became a ski resort with an alpine zoo.
VSMassongex
The only point where a bridge crossed the Rhône on the Great St Bernard road, the Roman vicus of Tarnaiae had its own baths, which yielded a mosaic of two wrestlers.
VSMex
A street village at 1'146 m on a ledge above the Rhône, east of the Dents du Midi. After 1476 the seven Valais dizains entrusted it with guarding the Salanfe and La Balmaz passes.
VSMiéville
Once a stopping place on the Valais road at the foot of the Pissevache waterfall, this hamlet in the municipality of Vernayaz keeps a dense web of stone lanes beside a large hydroelectric plant.
VS · Lost villageOttanel
First parish centre of the whole Salvan and Finhaut valley, the hamlet of Ottanel vanished under a landslide in 1535, on the territory of today's municipality of Vernayaz.
VS · TownSaint-Maurice
Where tradition places the martyrdom of Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion, Sigismund founded an abbey in 515. In 888 Rudolph was crowned king of Burgundy there.
VSSalvan
In 1895 Guglielmo Marconi carried out his first wireless telegraphy trials at Salvan, in a Trient valley that had become a health resort in the 19th century.
VSVernayaz
Ottanel, the first centre of the parish, vanished under a rockslide in 1535. At the mouth of the Trient gorge, near the Pissevache falls, Vernayaz separated from Salvan in 1912.
VSVérolliez
Tradition places here the martyrdom of Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion. Its Chapel of the Martyrs, consecrated in 1290, was rebuilt in the 18th century.
VSVérossaz
According to tradition, the Burgundian king Sigismund withdrew here in 523. The plateau of hamlets above Saint-Maurice only became a municipality in 1822.
Sites 5
Abbaye de Saint-Maurice
Founded in 515 by Sigismund near the relics of the Theban martyrs, the abbey is still home to its community of canons regular.
VS · Site · Lost villageArbignon
Already inhabited in Roman times, Arbignon, on the right bank of the Rhône, was probably abandoned because of the Aboyeu floods, and Collonges took its place.
VS · SiteSalanfe
Alpine pasture of the municipality of Evionnaz at the foot of the Dents du Midi, disputed for centuries with Salvan and flooded since the 1950s by the Salanfe reservoir.
VS · SiteTarnaiae
Gaulish chief town of the Nantuates, Tarnaiae became a Roman vicus with baths, whose mosaic of two wrestlers can still be seen in Massongex.
VS · SiteVieux-Emosson
Above the Lac du Vieux-Emosson, in the municipality of Finhaut, quartzite slabs bear reptile footprints over 230 million years old, uncovered in 1976.