Saillon - Martigny

Saillon: Chapel St. Laurent

On the penultimate stage from Disentis to St. Maurice, we hike along the end of the wine route through central Valais. Behind the vineyard village of Branson at the species-rich Follaterre nature reserve, we cross the Rhone knee and stop in Martigny. The Roman Emperor Claudius (41-54) had the Forum Claudii Vallensium built here in 16 squares. A Roman temple (Mitraeum) can be visited during an archaeological tour in the garage level of a residential block, another Roman temple now stands amidst Picasso, Matisse, Klee, etc. in the Fondation Pierre Gianadda. It was "encased" by the most successful museum in Valais. The Romans needed this town as a strategic bastion at the foot of the Great Saint Bernard (then "In Summo Pennino", the only Swiss Alpine pass named on the Roman Peutinger map). A predecessor of the current parish church was the first bishop's church of Valais until the bishop moved to Sion shortly before 600. Just behind the Fondation Gianadda, the Fondation Barry breeds Saint Bernards in their Barryland with an attractive museum; these dogs have saved many a pilgrim from freezing.