The Aosta Valley has always been a corridor: a chain of passes linking the Italian plain to the heart of Europe, and a valley studded with castles built to watch over it. Verrès is the most radical of them. Rather than a cluster of towers and courtyards, it takes the form of a single enormous cube of stone set on a rocky spur, its walls almost blank, its power expressed through sheer geometry. Inside, the film follows the vaulted staircase, the courtyard, the great hall and the mullioned windows that betray the residential ambitions of the Challant lords who held the valley. The contrast is the subject: austerity outside, domestic life within. Sequences place the castle in its landscape of mountains, vineyards and river, and in the wider network of fortresses strung along the valley floor. Filmed in 4K with aerial coverage, the programme suits strands on medieval architecture, alpine heritage and military engineering.
