Hotel Dieu
Hotel Dieu or Maison Dieu is situated in the town center, along the road that was the ancient "Monginevro road", then "Roman Road of the Gauls", and then (with the passage of Dora Upper Valley to the Dauphiné – 12th century) "Road of France", one of the most important transalpine roads of medieval Europe, busy with carts, horses, horsemen, rich and religious persons, pilgrims. If everybody, in Salbertrand, could quench their thirst with the water springing from two big wooden fountains (then reconstructed in stone in the years 1524 and 1525), they could choose the place where they could rest: somebody would reach one of the big monasteries of the valley, somebody else chose an inn, the poor travelers were welcomed in this Maison Dieu.
The structure, like many others along the Road of France, had been built exactly with this aim: offering travelers a hot dish and a bed for the night and, if ill, a period of rest; for the dead, the tree traditional days of wake before the burial were organized.
The building, purchased in 2011 by Gran Bosco di Salbertrand Park Authority (managing Colombano Romean Ecomuseum), is currently closed and waiting for renovation works. It represents an important step to add to the ecomuseum project/route, offering a new development space. The aim is to give it back its ancient function, transforming it, in the future, into a rest place: a welcome structure for modern travelers and pilgrims following the itineraries dedicated to a "slow" and sustainable tourism of Via Francigena and the Grand Rentrée of the Waldensians.
