The Castles of Sion E-Book

Patrick Elsig

• Herausgeber: Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte GSK
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Schweizerische Kunstführer SKF
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 53

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

What might the small city of Sion look like without its two castles? The striking fortifications on the Valeria and Tourbillon hills and the Majorie and Vidomnat buildings form part of the medieval built fabric of the Valais canton’s capital. They evoke a time when Catholic bishops and the cathedral Chapter controlled the gateway to the Great St Bernard and Simplon passes – two major historic trade routes across the Swiss Alps. Discover Sion’s medieval atmosphere, and its treasure of the rarest and unique artefacts.

Leseprobe

Patrick Elsig

The Castles of Sion

Canton Valais, Switzerland

Representative and symbolic buildings

A lasting medieval imprint

Two hills for two powers

The city’s fortifications

Valeria Castle

Castle or fortified village?

A thousand years of construction in three major phases

Earliest structures and defences (11th to 14th centuries)

Functional and aesthetic improvements (15th to 18th centuries)

The historic monument (19th to 21st centuries)

A tour of Valeria village

The site’s defences

Dwelling houses and common rooms

A visit to the Basilica

The nave and its features

The chancel

The aisles and transept

The Treasury

All Saints Chapel

Tourbillon Castle

A symbol of episcopal power

A tour of the castle

The residential tower and hall

The chapel and its murals

The Majorie episcopal complex

The Vidomnat

The Majorie

Sion – a unique medieval site

Appendix

Swiss Heritage Guides are produced as part of the extensive range of publications and events presented by the Society for the History of Swiss Art SHSA.The Society records, researches and disseminates information on the history of Switzerland’s architectural heritage, contributing to its long-term preservation. It produces various publications including a journal on architecture and the decorative arts. Founded in 1880, the SHSA is a non-profit organisation; it works in three Swiss national languages, i.e. German, French and Italian.

Please request information about your SHSA membership here:

Society for the History of Swiss Art SHSA

Pavillonweg 2, 3012 BernTel.: [phone]Fax: [phone] [email protected], www.gsk.ch

Published with the support of the Société des Amis de Valére. We most gratefully acknowledge funding provided by Loterie Romande, the Valais Cantonal Museums, Sion City Council, Administration of Canton Valais, Office of Public Buildings, Historic Monuments and Archaeology of Canton Valais, Tourbillon Castle Foundation, the Burghers of Sion, and Sedunum Nostrum.

Front coverView of the city of Sion.

Back coverSion c.1860, gouache. Bleuler workshop, Schaffhausen.

Inside back coverRomanesque capitals of Valeria picked out in natural lighting.

EditorValérie Clerc, MA, SHSA

TranslationTimothy Stroud, France Margret Powell-Joss, Scotland/UK

DesignPierre de Senarclens, visum design, Bern

SubscriptionsAnnual subscription CHF 98.00 for 15-20 issues

© Société d’histoire de l’art en Suisse SHAS

ISBN 978-3-03797-601-2

ISSN 2235-0632

Serie 105, Nr. 1041–1042

View of the city of Sion: Tourbillon Castle on the hill to the left. On the hill to the right, the castle or capitular village of Valeria, with the Jesuit Church below. The Dog Tower, the Majorie Tower and the Vidomnat building stand on the ridge below the castle of Tourbillon.

Representative and symbolic buildings

A lasting medieval imprint

The small city of Sion in the Swiss Valais valley has seen a continual human presence since the Neolithic period (5200–2200 BCE). Evidence can be found at the outstanding prehistoric burial site at Le Petit Chasseur with its engraved anthropomorphic steles. Moreover, at the nearby Don Bosco site, archaeologists recently discovered barrow or tumulus graves from the late Bronze (1000–800 BCE) and early Iron Ages (800–450 BCE). The Roman city, too, is gradually revealing itself as urban construction works are being carried out – baths here, a suburban villa there.

However, it is difficult to establish the original size of the city, as it has largely been destroyed by more recent construction work. On the other hand, and especially in the old town, the informed observer will notice the medieval city’s lasting imprint. After all, the unique Sion skyline was created during the Middle Ages when the Valeria and Tourbillon Castles were constructed on the two hills that stand guard in the Valais plain. Owing to Sion’s modest development over the centuries, much of its medieval fabric remains. Moreover, the relative poverty of its inhabitants prompted them to preserve still useful artefacts. The result is a historical legacy rarely found elsewhere – including manuscripts, archives, furnishings, and ancient weapons – the prime example being the organ at Valeria Castle, which is the world’s oldest such instrument still in operation.

Two hills for two powers

The two hills perfectly symbolise the regional division of power during the Middle Ages. In 999 CE, King Rudolf III of Burgundy handed the temporal rights over the County of Valais to the bishop of Sion. From then on, the bishop exercised both temporal and spiritual power over the territory, and had to defend Sion against neighbouring lords, in particular the House of Savoy, which quickly seized the Great St Bernard Pass. The local nobility also made claims, as did, eventually, the local population. From the seventeenth century, the bishop was forced to share his power with the Diet, a body of elected civic representatives.

Medieval bishops delegated certain administrative tasks relating to their fiefdom to the canons of the cathedral Chapter, an institution probably created during the Carolingian age to support the cathedral, both spiritually and in terms of religious services and other work in this sacred edifice. Soon after its establishment, the Chapter began to enjoy a degree of independence. Throughout the medieval period, it acted as a form of “Ministerial Council” to the bishop, but also frequently formed a counterforce to the prelate’s authority.

This state of affairs was reflected in the castles of Sion. Valeria Castle, on the lower of the two hills, was the seat of the cathedral Chapter while Tourbillon Castle, on the higher hill, was the bishop’s exclusive residence. It should be noted that the prelate at that time still bestowed some minor privileges, in particular the low jurisdiction, upon local lords. From their fortified towers scattered up and down Valais, those lords exercised the offices of major and vidomne, to mention only the two best known ones. Their fortresses, known as the Majorie and the Vidomnat (or Sénéchalie in earlier times) stood in Sion, on the ridge at the foot of Tourbillon Hill. When the then bishop purchased the Majorie in the fourteenth century, he instantly became the owner of most of the city’s north ridge facing Valeria. Now the two hills stood for two powers.

The city’s fortifications