Cly Castle

Cly is a castle in the Italian municipality of Saint-Denis, in Aosta Valley, northwest Italy. It belongs to the so-called primitive style of castle, consisting of a keep with a surrounding wall. The ruins rise from a bed of metamorphic rock, on the edge of a fault line which extends to the Quart Castle.^[1]

Cly castle
Aosta Valley, Italy
Cly castle ruins
Site information
Controlled by	Municipality of Saint-Denis
Location
Cly castle Show map of Aosta Valley Cly castle Show map of Northern Italy Cly castle Show map of Italy
Coordinates	45°44′57″N 7°33′37″E
Height	2520 ft.
Site history
Built	1207
Built by	Challant family

History

Cly was first mentioned in a document from 1207, in which the "chapel sancti Mauricij (Saint Maurice) de castro Cliuo" is mentioned among the goods of the Vicarage of Saint-Gilles in Verrès, but the keep has been dated to 1027 using an analysis of the tree rings in its timbers (dendrochronology). Originally a fief held from the Counts of Savoy, in 1376 the direct ownership passed to the Duchy of Savoy, which installed a castellan to administer it for them until abandoned in 1550. The castle fell to ruins in the centuries that followed.^[2]

The castle today

Eventually the castle ruins became the property of the nearby town of Saint-Denis. The castle is visible atop the hill overlooking Chambave.