Castello di Pont Saint Martin, castle in Pont-Saint-Martin, Aosta Valley, Italy

Castello di Pont-Saint-Martin, also called Châtelard or Château vieux, stands on a morainic hill above the village of Pont-Saint-Martin, on the right bank of the Lys valley. Its ruined eastern side held a hexagonal keep, an unusual shape in Valdostan castles, comparable to the nearby Pramotton tower. The irregular curtain wall follows glacier-smoothed rock and opens on the south, the only narrow passage; the west side keeps the chapel and kitchen, whose domed vault has a central smoke hole. A small cylindrical turret with blind arches survives on one corner.

The castle belonged to the lords of Pont-Saint-Martin, a branch of the Bard family that took this name on 19 July 1214, when the brothers Hugues de Bard and Guillaume de Pont-Saint-Martin divided the family estates. Its construction is undocumented and probably took place in stages during the 14th century. Antoine de Pont-Saint-Martin was briefly dispossessed by Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy in 1447; the castle was already in ruins around 1460, when his sons Bertrand, Jacques, Ardisson and François asked to restore it, and it returned to the family in 1466. It was abandoned, perhaps in the 16th century, for the fortified house in the village.

The castle reflects how medieval communities in this valley organized their defenses and daily life through strategic construction. Its placement on the rock shows the practical building methods that local craftsmen used during that era.

From the village, leave the Roman bridge behind and follow the mule track toward Perloz and the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde sanctuary. Turn right onto a steep path through the vineyards; the ruins are reached in under half an hour on foot.

The castle's hexagonal keep is unusual among Aosta Valley castles; Francesco Corni links its shape to the English castles of Caernarfon and Arundel, and it can be compared with the keep of the nearby Pramotton tower. A small cylindrical turret with blind arches still juts from one corner, recalling early 15th-century Piedmontese castles.