Aosta · Italy

Tower of the Leper

In 1773 a man suffering from leprosy, Pietro Bernardo Guasco, was confined in this tower together with his sister. They remained for years, cut off from the rest of the city, observed at a distance, a walled garden their only view. The matter would have closed there, as so many others did, had a Savoyard officer passing through, Xavier de Maistre, not gone to speak with him. He drew from it a short book, The Leper of the City of Aosta, published in 1811: a dialogue between the officer and the sick man upon solitude, written in a dry prose that asks for no pity. The book travelled across Europe and was translated everywhere. And so this Roman tower, standing for eighteen centuries and once the guardian of an entire city, took the name of a man confined within it for a few years who had not chosen to be there. It is not the stone that makes the name. It is whoever has lived in it.

Go deeper

Is the tower Roman?

Yes: it is one of the towers of the Roman city wall, later adapted in the Middle Ages like many others in Aosta. The use changes, the structure stays.

Who was Xavier de Maistre?

A Savoyard officer and writer, brother of the more famous Joseph. His account of the leper of Aosta, published in 1811, was read across Europe.

Can I visit it?

The tower is used as an exhibition space and opens for shows. Check the local cultural programme before walking up here.

Where it is

Rue Tour du Lepreux - Via Torre del Lebbroso, 11100 Aosta · 45.73437, 7.31561 · Open in Maps

Listen where it happened

Part of Memoro, a free audio guide you open in your browser. No app, no account.