Écours Castle is located north of the Aosta Valley capital, on the road leading up to the hilltop villages. The massive square tower is what remains of the construction of the thirteenth century.
Castello di Écours History
The castle was built at the end of the twelfth century by the Lescours family (de Curiis, or Les Cours), an aristocratic family of notarial origin who already in 1430 feuded part of their possessions to the Châtelard family, including the castle.
According to tradition, Pope Innocent V was born in 1224, born Pierre de Tarentaise and belonging to the noble Les Cours family, but some scholars, including Pierre Frutaz, disconfirm this hypothesis.
In 1551 the castle was definitively sold to the Bozel family and in the same century it passed into the hands of the Gal and Malliet families. In the seventeenth century the property passed in bulk to the Passerin family who were still the owners of it in 1730.