Petit Monde local history museum
Resort: Torgnon
During the summer, the museum is open for free every weekend in July and every day in August.
In other periods is open on prior reservation for group visits, admission is for a fee.
It is advisable to always contact in advance to find out the opening dates:
www.petitmonde.torgnon.org
Library tel. +39 0166.540.213 biblioteca@comune.torgnon.ao.it
Tourist Office tel. +39 0166.540.433 info@torgnon.net
Free admission during periods of regular opening in summer.
In the remaining periods, group visits are subject to a fee.
During the closing periods, visit by reservation only by calling the tourist office tel. +39 0166.540433 or in the library tel. +39 0166.540213
The territory known as Petit-Monde includes the two villages of Triatel and Étirol, that have maintained the typical inhabited mountain landscape.
In the village of Triatel there is an interesting ethnographical museum located inside traditional rural buildings.
A racard, or granary which is to find nowhere else in the Valley, a grandze, or rural building and a hayloft, built between 1462 and 1700, restored and displayed in a very original fashion, bear witness to a past that might otherwise be forgotten.
The tour begins on the bottom floor of the granary, with the permanent exhibition entitled “The Labyrinth of Memory”, which tells the true story of Man, the origin and evolution of the village, the life and social organisation of the inhabitants of this little corner of the past.
The texts of the exhibition, accompanied by Francesco Corni’s drawings, summarise the local history, and are easy to follow even for children.
As visitors take a look around the numerous inside rooms, the “tsé” and “tzambron”, they can build up a realistic picture of the hard lives led by the local people in the past, governed by the slow rhythm of the work in the fields. The silence brings memories and imagination alive, and visitors can almost hear the ancient sounds of the village, smell the hay and the wheat and the animals. Every day in the summer, the museum “square” is filled with visitors chatting away just like the local mountain folk, and the museum becomes no longer a place to recall the past, but a lively, bustling present.
The tour ends with a visit to the mill, just a short distance away on the Petit Monde torrent.
How to get there
In order to fully appreciate the place, the museum and the surrounding nature, it is advisable to walk to the museum, so you can admire the splendid views over Torgnon, the Valtournenche and the Matterhorn.
The place can easily be reached on foot, although it is also accessible by car, along the same narrow asphalt road, popular with walkers, about 1.8 km long.