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Les Valettes

Canton of Valais · District: Martigny · No published figure for the locality; the municipality of Bovernier has 952 inhabitants (31.12.2025, provisional FSO figure)
Part of the municipality of Bovernier
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Must-see historical sites Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Les Valettes

The name Les Valettes, borne by one of the two main localities of Bovernier, remains unexplained.

Founding of Les Valettes

Together with Bovernier, Les Valettes is one of the two main localities of the municipality of Bovernier, not counting the hamlets of the Champex valley. When the village came into being is unknown. Iron ore from Mont Chemin was smelted here in earlier times, and later at Ardon together with ore from Chamoson. For Bovernier, and above all for Les Valettes, the Durnand torrent was a more threatening enemy than the Dranse. In the 1870s the development of the Durnand gorges made the hamlet the starting point of a tourist road, whose first section later served the road to Champex.[1][2][3]

History of Les Valettes

1852. A flood of the Durnand destroys the bridge and the mill and carries the wheel of the tilt hammer as far as Vouvry.[1]

1868. The primary assembly of Bovernier unanimously approves the concession request for the Durnand gorges submitted by Argimir Gaillard of Orsières.[1]

1871. On 4 June about ninety members of the French-speaking sections of the Swiss Alpine Club make the first organised visit to the gorges.[1]

1874. On 25 May, founding of the Société des Gorges du Durnand, which plans an access road from Les Valettes.[1]

1876. After expropriations pronounced on 10 May, the road of about 1 km is completed in July. The gorges welcome their first visitors that summer.[1]

1877. On 8 July, official inauguration of the Durnand gorges.[1]

1898. On 20 July an exceptional flood tears away much of the upper galleries and sweeps away two men who were floating timber.[1]

1900. The gorges bridge is rebuilt about three metres higher than the old one.[1]

1906. The road from Les Valettes to Champex takes over the gorges road as its first section, and the shareholders of the Société des Gorges vote it a subsidy of 2'000 francs.[1]

around 1915. A photograph shows a school building at the entrance to Les Valettes.[1]

1987. Complete renovation of the Durnand gorges.[5]

Historic sites in Les Valettes

Durnand gorges. Gorge of the Durnand torrent on the road to Champex, fitted with galleries and opened to visitors in 1876, inaugurated in 1877, rebuilt after the 1898 flood and fully renovated in 1987. The visit starts from the Les Gorges du Durnand café-restaurant, on the road between Les Valettes and Champex.[1][4][5]

Sources

  1. Marlène Hiroz et Jean-Charles Fellay, « Les gorges du Durnand : 150 ans de tourisme dans les gorges du Durnand », Patrimoines de Martigny, bulletin n° 22, 2021
  2. Minaria Helvetica 18b/1998, numéro spécial « Mont Chemin » (Société suisse d'histoire des mines ; éditorial citant le Handbuch der schweizerischen Volkswirtschaft de 1911)
  3. Archives de l'Abbaye de Saint-Maurice, « Archives paroissiales de Bovernier »
  4. Showcaves.com, « Gorges du Durnand »
  5. Café-restaurant des Gorges du Durnand, site officiel des gorges
  6. Office fédéral de la statistique (OFS), STATPOP, chiffres provisoires au 31.12.2025, via citypopulation.de
  7. geo.admin.ch, recherche de lieux (coordonnées)

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