Page 4 - Guida di Oulx

della Via Lattea e di Bardonecchiaski, Oulx mantiene la sua vocazione
turistica offrendo opportunità invernali, con la pista da fondo di Be-
aulard, ed estive. La ricca offerta culturale del luogo poggia su eventi
rilevanti quali la Fiera della Scapulera e la Fiera Franca.
Il Comune ha inoltre intrapreso l’iniziativa del I‘Museo all’Aria Aper-
ta’, con l’intenzione di promuovere l’arte, quella contemporanea in
particolare, e avvicinare la maggior parte di persone. A tal scopo ha
commissionato ad alcuni artisti opere da collocare in spazi aperti.
Hanno partecipato all’iniziativa T. Aime, S. Albano, A. Carena, L. Chen,
L. Laterza, S. Lobalzo, K. Maier, G. Soffiantino, L. Spessot, F. Tabusso, S.
armed forces. From the medieval period the ‘Torre Saracena’ has survived, probably constructed Introduction
Unia e E. Viarengo Minotti.
Il Sindaco
Oulx (1,127m) has always been a meeting place due to its position which, via the Monginevro
Pass, links the Rodano plain with the one of the river Po.
Of antique origins, its history recalls that in the Roman era there was a temple dedicated to Mars;
for this reason the village was called Ad Martis. It is worth mentioning a strange bronze hatpin
from the Civilization of Hallstatt (800-500 b.C.). From the Gauls, to Caesar’s legions, from the
barbaric hordes to the French army, Oulx was an area of canalisation, residence and the route of
after 1339. The development of Oulx coincided with the creation of the ‘Prevostura’ around 1000,
when the Bishop of Turin Cuniberto donated 41 churches to the new institution. Then only in
1419 when the Army of Charles VIII was barracked among the inhabitants of ‘Éscarton’, Oulx was
recognized as a city, and in the same year the sovereign granted it the opportunity of holding a
‘Fiera Franca’, an event which is still alive nowadays.
In the second half of the 16 th cent. the village was afflicted by the religious wars whose main
protagonist was Jean Borel, Landlord of Nevache, nicknamed Captain La Cazette, born in Oulx,
governor of the Forts of Briançon and of Exilles, commander of the Royal French troops in the
Dauphin’s land and in the High Valley of the Dora river. In the Casa Ambrosiani, where he lived,
on the night between 14 and 15 June 1590, 25 Waldensians of the Lesdiguières Duke, com-
th
th
manded by Captain Du Pont, attacked him. The Captain jumped from his bed, seized a halberd
and barricaded himself in a small room where, before giving in, strenuously defended himself.
Two hundred years later, the population continues to visit the room - still stained with blood.
In 1630 Oulx was afflicted by the plague brought by a troop of French soldiers, and the inhabitan-
ts of Oulx turned for help to the sanitary cordons and to the ‘profumeurs’ engaged to light fires
with juniper wood and medical plants in the squares. In 1728, there was a dreadful flood, caused
by the river Dora, which turned the hamlets into unhealthy tarns and also seriously damaged the
Abbey buildings. By that time Oulx and its éscarton, after having been subjected for centuries to
the Dauphin first, and then to France - because of the Utrecht Treaty in 1713, which assigned the
Alta Valle Susa to the Dukes of Savoy.
Oulx witnessed the marriage between the Duke V. Amedeo III and the Infanta of Spain Maria
Antonia Ferdinanda. The marriage celebrated by proxy in Madrid, was ratified in the Prevostura
of Oulx and it was attended by Cardinal Delle Lanze.
The Napoleon Era left deep marks in the valley due to the opening of roads and the recruitment of
soldiers that followed Napoleon’s Army in all of his campaigns. After that, the historical event in
the 19 th cent. which completely changed the local economy was the opening of the Fréjus railway
tunnel in 1870. During this century it was mainly the motorization of the masses which was the
main carrier of economical and trade exchange and also the increase of tourism. Oulx still today
preserves its old organization divided into three parts which consist of the Vière, the Plan and the
ancient ‘Prevostura’.