Aosta · Italy

The city that shrank

The Roman walls enclose a broad rectangle. For most of the Middle Ages, however, the town occupied only a portion of that rectangle, and the remainder within the walls was gardens, vines and fields. Aosta had been built for a population that no longer existed once the empire ended and, rather than draw the circuit in, it was kept and half filled. The towers you see along the perimeter give the proof: Roman at the base and medieval above, because powerful families took possession of them and built their residences within. For centuries, to enter Aosta was to enter a half-empty Roman city, inhabited by far fewer people than it had been conceived for.

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How big is the rectangle?

About seven hundred metres by five hundred and seventy, with the wall standing over six metres in places. It is one of the best-preserved Roman circuits in Europe, precisely because nobody ever had a reason to knock it down for space.

Which towers were reused?

Nearly all of them. The Tower of the Leper, the Tour Fromage, the Tower of the Bailiffs, the Bramafam Tower: each has a Roman base and a different medieval story on top. Walking the circuit is the quickest way to see fifteen hundred years in an hour.

When did it fill up again?

Only in the twentieth century, and not inside the walls but outside them. The modern city grew around the Roman rectangle, mainly after the railway and the industry arrived. The old centre has stayed roughly the size it was.

Where it is

Via Festaz, 11100 Aosta · 45.73524, 7.31833 · Open in Maps

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