Museo della Resistenza e Centro di Documentazione “Emile Chanoux”

The Museo della Resistenza e Centro di Documentazione “Emile Chanoux” (“Emile Chanoux” Resistance Museum and Documentation Center) presents the local history of resistance to German and fascist occupation in the surrounding communities of the Valsavarenche Valley, from 1943-1945.

The museum also commemorates Emile Chanoux (1906-1944), a supporter of political autonomy for the Valle d’Aosta who led the National Committee of Liberation of Aosta and assisted in organizing partisan activity following German occupation of the region. Chanoux was a key figure in the drafting of the Declaration of Representatives of the Alpine Populations, signed in Chivasso on December 19, 1943, which called for the formation of a federal Italian state with political autonomy for the alpine communities. Chanoux was arrested and tortured by Italian Social Republic police on May 18, 1944, and was killed by his jailors. The museum and documentation center, located in the former schoolhouse Chanoux attended as a child, contains many of his writings from before and during the Second World War as well as photographs and other wartime records. Also preserved are the writings of contemporary Italian and French authors on Alpine autonomy and federalism, including those of Federico Chabod (1901-1960): Italian historian and advocate for autonomy, and first President of the Regional Council of Valle d’Aosta in 1946.

The museum forms a part of INTEREG Europe’s Mémoire des Alpes – Chemins de la Liberté (Memory of the Alps – Trails of Freedom) initiative, which connects significant places of memory in the region across the French, Swiss, and Italian borders.