After over a decade of restoration work an abandoned fort located in the Aosta Valley, Italy, is now standing as a cultural centre. In the framework of the “regeneration of the Bard castle” project and thanks to the € 11 million funded by the European Union, through the ERDF in the period between 2000 and 2006, an old and ruined military complex is nowadays a point of interest for tourists in the route of the Aosta Valley.
The reconverted Bard Castle, that covers a 14 000 m2 surface, has already welcomed more than 80.000 visitors in 2008. The main tourism attractions are three museums. One of them is the Museum of the Alps and is devoted to promote visitors’ understanding of Europe’s highest mountains and local nature. The second, the Fort Museum aims at explaining the history of the Bard Castle itself, and finally, the third one is the Museum of the Borders.
In addition, the Bard Castle organises temporary exhibitions and hosts big events such as theatre performances and concerts. It was also one of the cultural points of interest during the Olympic Games that took place in Torino in 2006 as it hosted the exhibition entitled “The Alpine Dream”.
This cultural complex also hosts a luxury hotel, one restaurant and a souvenir boutique.
As this centre is located in a quite isolated area in the mountains the accesses were improved too. As a result, currently, visitors can easily get to the castle by using the glass lifts installed for this purpose or by car taking the renewed road.
Lately, the project received more European funding for the period from 2007 to 2013.
Thanks to this project many jobs have been created and it is considered as an important economic resource for the inhabitants of the region that was deeply affected by the decline of the industrial sector.
For further information about this project, please, click here.
19 June 2015
