European Heritage Days - Saint-Martin Basilica

The basilica dates back to the 11th century and has a crypt and frescoes and the remains of choir stalls from an earlier church. Gallo-roman room with inscriptions in Latin.
Museum collection

The Romans envied the Tarentaise valley with its ideal situation on the road connecting Milan to Vienne (France). they envied its micro climate and they already spoke about the pretty russet-coloured cows (the Tarine or Tarentaise breed of cows), whose milk made such good cheese: the "caesum vatusicum", the predecessor of Tomme cheese.
Excellent strategists, they subdued the Gallic Ceutrones in around 21 BC and made Aime, under the name of Axima, the capital of the province of the Graian Alps which covered part of the current Savoie and Haute Savoie departments.

From this era, apart from the objects that can be seen in the Pierre Borrione museum, we have the remains of a Roman building. Destroyed when the Ormente river flooded, the early Christians built a first church on the ruins. After this was destroyed by a fire, the constructors of the year 1000 built a jewel of Savoyard Roman art in the same place: Saint-Martin's basilica. Listed as a historical monument in 1875, it has not been used as a place of worship for several centuries.