Saint-Nicolas ( Valdôtain: ) is a town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' in the autonomous region of

Aosta Valley , Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = Official languages , population_blank1 = Italian French ...

, in northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It consists of 13 hamlets located between above sea level. Sitting like a balcony above the

Dora Baltea Dora Baltea () or Doire Baltée () is a river in northwestern Italy. It is a left-hand tributary of the Po and is about long. Name The river's Latin name was ''Duria maior'', ''Duria Baltica'' or ''Duria Bautica''. Strabo called it Δουρ� ...

Valley, Saint-Nicolas overlooks the four major lateral valleys of the mid-upper Aosta valley. These are (moving up the valley); Val de Cogne, Valsavarenche, Val de Rhêmes, and Valgrisenche.

Sites

Saint-Nicolas consists of a small city center and numerous hamlets or ''

frazioni A ''frazione'' (plural: ) is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' (municipality) in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territ ...

'', locally officially called ''hameaux'' (in French). Among the most scenic is Persod, which is protected by the Italian "Belle Arti" laws. It consists of 35 stone houses with slate roofs connected by a thin road not large enough for a car to pass. Today, Persod has only six year-round residents, and about 8 regular weekenders from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and Saint-Pierre. The hamlet of Persod is recognizable even from the distance of a passing airplane as it the only village in the area surrounded by giant poplar trees. A noted artisanal maker of Fontina cheese may be found just above the village of Chaillod.

Culture

Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne

Saint-Nicolas was the birthplace of Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne, a humble

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

who had pride in his region and its unique language, called Francoprovençal or Arpitan. He authored several noteworthy poems in his native patois and wrote the first

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domain ...

and dictionary devoted to the

Valdôtain dialect Valdôtain (; local dialect: ''Valdotèn'', ''Valdŏtèn'', ''Valdouhtan'') is a dialect of Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) spoken in the Aosta Valley in Italy. It is commonly known as ''patois'' or ''patoué''. Diffusion The Aosta Valley repres ...

Center for Francoprovençal Studies

The Center for Francoprovençal Studies (''Le Centre d'études francoprovençales''), or CEFP, located in the village of Fossaz-dessus, is one of the most important centers for Francoprovençal language research. It opened November 12, 1988 and was dedicated to the Aosta Valley writer and playwright René Willien. The CEFP occupies an 18th-century ''paysannes maison'' (farmhouse) native to the Aosta Valley, which was completely restored by architects Louis Bochet and Albert Breuvé. Typical of these multi-function structures, locally called a ''pailler'', the animals, hay, and farm implements filled the

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Alle ...

(''booué'') on the ground floor, the family

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running wate ...

(''meison'') occupied first floor, and the sleeping room (') was located on the second floor. Among the center's holdings is the archive of the "Concours Cerlogne," a poetry, drama and music competition in the regional language reserved for elementary school students in the Aosta Valley that has been held annually since 1963. The CEFP works in collaboration with the Regional Bureau of Ethnology and Linguistics (''Bureau régional pour l'ethnologie et la linguistique'') (BREL) of Aosta, and other research centers in France and Swiss Romandy on its border.

Gerbore Museum

This museum, situated in the village of Lyverloulaz, demonstrates the impact of agricultural mechanization on the lives of Aosta Valley residents through the experiences of Joseph Gerbore. Funding by the municipality of Saint-Nicolas, the Aosta Valley Region, and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

, has enabled exhibitions, including ''Le temps des pionniers'', at the ''Maison de la Tor'', located in the center of the village of Lyveroulaz.

References

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