ITALY PART 2 -TRAVELBLOG- Aosta Valley, Castello di Sarre, "the castle of horns"

Another beautiful castle from the Aosta valley in Italy i visited on my last trip is Castello di Sarre.

This one really stands out for its interiors, lots of old furniture and paintings but what makes this castle really special are thousands of hunting trophies used as decoration on walls and ceiling.

Built in 1710 on the ruins of a fortress mentioned as early as 1242, having passed through various hands, the property was purchased by the King of Italy Victor Emanuel II, who renovated it and used it during hunting expeditions in Val d’Aosta. Keep reading to see the amazing collection of tropies the king collected!

Befor i tell more about the castle itself, i just have to mention how unbelievable quiet it is here....We were the only visitors there. There was a very kind guide that showed us the whole castle on our own, telling great stories with lots of passion!
This happened to us a couple of times visitting castles in this part of Italy, i loved it, you have the feeling the castle is there only for you!

Here he is ...king Victor Emanuel II, the man that had so much passion for Ibex hunting, he bougth this castle as a headcuarters for expeditions in the Cogne, Rhemes and Valsavarenche valleys.

His successor, Umberto I also used it for hunting purposes, while his wife Queen Margherita prefered to stay at the Savoy castle ( i will write about this castle in another blog).

Next to the entrance there is an area with paintings and pictures that tell about the hunting expiditions.

My guide told me that they killed so many Ibex that it almost vanished from this area, the king hired a lot of local villagers that would chase down the animals to his prefered spot, the hard work was done by others making it easy for the kings to kill so many of them...

The bedrooms are beautiful, its nice to see that so many Original pieces of furniture are still there!

After the bedrooms we came to the best part of the castle, the hallway to the dining room and the diningroom itself.
When we entered at first i thougth the walls and ceilings were painted but when i looked better i saw that it was all a huuge trophy gallery!

Thousands of horns are used to decorate the hallways and rooms.....it looked almost unreal!

The diningroom was even more impressive.

If you look more in to the details, you can imagine how much work this must have been!

Continuing your walk true the castle you will find areas with more paintings and furniture and lots of juicy royal stories from the guide ;-)

A very interesting place to visit with lots of things to see, i cant recommend this part of italy enough!

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Thank you for reading!