Ideas and tips for your vacation
at the Vieilles Maisons apartments
The Vieilles Maisons holiday apartments are located in a strategic position for exploring the Aosta Valley.
Introd is located at the gates of the Gran Paradiso National Park and is just a few minutes drive from Aosta, Courmayeur and Mont Blanc.
Summer and winter activities
During your summer holiday in our apartments in Introd it will be possible to carry out the following activities
Trekking, Fishing, Cycling, Rafting, Climbing
In the valleys of Gran Paradiso: cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, ski mountaineering, snowboarding, snowshoeing and ice climbing.
Useful links
Some historical notes on Introd
Introd is located 15 km from Aosta, at the entrance to the Rhêmes Valley and Valsavarenche (distance from Rhemes Notre Dame 16 km and from Valsavarenche 15 km), two of the three Aosta Valley valleys that are part of the Gran Paradiso National Park, at 880 metres above sea level.
It owes its name “Interaquas“, Entre Eaux in French, to its location between the Dora di Rhêmes and the Savara torrent. Its position at the foot of the Gran Paradiso National Park means that, in the summer season, a network of paths winds from Introd, excellent for trekking or mountain bike trips.
In the winter, Introd offers itineraries for snowshoeing and is centrally located to the main Alpine and Nordic skiing resorts in the Aosta Valley.
The inhabitants of Introd still today, alongside French and Italian (the two official languages of the Aosta Valley), use patois, a Franco-Provençal dialect common to the three Alpine regions at the foot of Mont Blanc (Aosta Valley – Romandy Switzerland – Savoy).
The Castle
A Introd è ben conservato il castello del 1260, voluto da Pierre de Sarriod che prese il titolo di Signore d’Introd; nei pressi è da vedere la cascina Ola, un‘antica costruzione rurale in legno e muratura, di epoca cinquecentesca.
The Church
The parish church of San Paolo, dating back to 1500 but remodeled in later periods, has a true masterpiece of Baroque art in the carved wooden high altar.
The fractions
In the locality of Les Combes (also reachable with a nice walk of about 1 hour and 20 meters for a difference in altitude of 460 meters) there is a museum dedicated to the Blessed Pontiff Pope John Paul II.
In the village Villes-Dessus you can visit the recent wildlife park (Parc Animalier) where you can admire specimens of animals typical of the Alpine arc placed in their natural habitat.
Relations with the Holy See
The town of Introd is known for being a place loved by the Popes.
Two Popes spent their holidays here, alternating relaxing excursions in the mountains with intense moments of prayer, reading and reflection, aided by the quiet and beauty of the place.
The town of Les Combes hosted Blessed Pope John Paul II ten times between 1989 and 2004, and in the summer of 2009 Pope Benedict XVI returned for the third time, after his holidays in 2005 and 2006.
Curiosity
Also not to be missed is the Maison Bruil, one of the greatest examples of rural architecture in Gran Paradiso. The building currently houses a museum on traditional food and the “Atelier du goût” laboratories.
Another curiosity is the bridge, built during the First World War over a chasm more than eighty metres deep, a true architectural masterpiece, the highest bridge in the Aosta Valley.
In July 2011, during excavations planned as part of the expansion of the local kindergarten, the well-preserved remains of a woman who lived around 5,000 years ago were found, who has been provisionally named the Lady of Introd; the age of the skeleton is comparable to that of the Similaun Man.