The Castle of Dreams

The shutters banged against the house and the wind howled all night long. We hardly slept. The strong winds continue to blow down into the valley from the Alps, with gusts up to 60 mph hour. Mike wonders if there’s any air left up in the mountains. Our hostess says, “Take the Pullman, you can catch it by the bridge in Verres”. We ask ourselves, “Should we take the bus to Ivrea? Ah, let’s try to ride. If we’re pedaling into a headwind and going nowhere or getting blown over, then we’ll catch the bus.” Padre Pio was looking out for us. The winds were strong, but at our back! A couple of times when we missed a turn, we had to back track. That was slow going! If we had to pedal into the wind like that the whole way, we would never have made it. But, we did ride 33 miles, 1300 feet up and 1500 feet down, all the way to Ivrea. We rode into town relatively late, 6 pm, because we made a few ‘touristic’ stops along the way. The first stop (and the only story for this blip) was at the “Castle of Dreams”.

The Castle of Issogne has quite a long history. First on the site was an ancient Roman villa, then a fortified tower belonging to a 12th century Bishop, a later Bishop gave the tower (and the town) to Ibleto of Challant, who transformed the primitive tower into an elegant and stately manor in the late 14th century, which stayed in the Challant family for over five centuries. The manor became a “flamboyant” castle at the end of the 15th century, when Giorgio of Challant, a committed patron of the arts, expanded the palace and had it embellished with an immense work of frescoed decoration to celebrate the Challant family prestige. Subsequent generations filled the palace with extraordinary riches: magnficent tapestries, carved furniture, precious fabrics, silver tableware. But alas, the family resources were drained by legal proceedings, and by the time the last Challant died at the beginning of the 19th century, the castle was in a state of semi-abandonment and the financial burden led to selling of everything that wasn’t “nailed down”. The castle went up for auction. Perfect timing for a young painter from Turin, a refined collector with a passion for the Middle Ages looking for a castle to buy and restore. The extraordinary adventure of Vittorio Avondo and his merry band of artist friends (painters and writers) aimed to rescue the Challant castle to its one-time splendor. The Castle of Issogne becomes the castle of dreams: Avondo’s dream, but also the romantic dream of the Middle Age’s nobility. Any original furnishings that could be found were purchased. One bed was found in the barn of a nearby villa! The refurbished originals and historic paintings were used to make accurate copies of the furniture and furnishings. The original 15th century frescoes remained untouched, except for the historic and prestigious graffiti. Walking through Avondo’s Castle of Dreams was like walking through a noble’s home in the Middle Ages. So many pictures, but only a few can I show. Featured is a fresco from the “Hall of Justice” reception area shows some ironic humour of Knights without armor jousting with brooms. The extras: the kitchen; the ‘apothecary’s shop’ is one of the frescoed lunettes in the entrance arcade depicting daily life, note the medieval graffitti; Vittorio di Avondo (late 19th c) and pilgrim (early 21st c).