Tradition dates the foundation of the monastery to the X century, however the canonicals of St. Egidio are mentioned for the first time in 1050. It was the location of the parish church, which includes buildings dating from the XI and XVIII centuries. The main building, in visible stone, and the adjacent, main bell-tower were build in 1512 by the Provost Charles of Challant.
The current parish church of Sant’Egidio was instead built in 1775 on the site where the previous, Romanesque church lay. Only a simple, little belfry remains today. In 1775 Count Francesco Ottavio of Challant allowed the structures of the pre-existing church to be merged with the Chapel of Saints George and Maurice, built in 1407 by the knight Ibleto of Challant as his family’s burial chapel. The structures in this chapel are still easily identified today, from outside due to the magnificent mullioned window in worked stone that stands out on the wall facing towards the village and inside due to its gothic, ribbed vaults which were saved from eighteenth-century intervention.
On May 25, 1800, the convent of Verrès hosted Napoleon for the night as he and his troops descended from the Gran San Bernardo and crossed the Aosta Valley, starting his second Italian campaign.
Since December 2015, pilgrims who walk the Via Francigena can find accommodation in the guesthouse called “La Casa del Pellegrino”.