The Ôla

Very ancient construction (this building was already mentioned in a Sarriod family testament document of 1582), the Ôla has been used, for many centuries, as a stall, a stable and a barn, by the Lords of  Introd. It is composed of two bodies: the first, more ancient, surmounted by a hip-roof and characterized by stone arch doors. The second, more recent, has probably been added to the prior body near the second half of 15th century. Recent studies demonstrated that, in the same period, all the building’s wooden construction has been replaced. The most recent part has a very particular structure: five big columns, 1.80 metres in diameter, support a few notched wooden shelfs, that hold up some striking girders and molded joists. The walls of the upper floor are molded as well and chamfered around the windows. The roof has only one wing, and that gave the name to the building (Ôla in patois means wing). Due to its originality, this building had a large influence on house construction and architecture of Rhêmes Valley and nearby Tarentaise, as well as for the construction of many noblemen’s houses of the region.

In-depth Analysis

Here below you will find the results of an analysis regarding the wooden parts of the building, made by “Laboratoire romand de dendrocronologie” of Moudon (Switzerland) il on June 26th 2006.

“Eighteen samples have been taken, and the ensemble turned out to be very homogeneous.

Main body

The trees used for building the lower floor’s roof truss had been chopped down around 1435, and could probably be the date they started to construct the building. However the last growth rings are missing, so that date cannot be completely confirmed. On the contrary, we are fairly certain about the date of the construction’s woodcrafts, as it emerges, from the four samples analyzed, that those trees had been chopped down during autumn/winter of 1458/1459.

Columns

The big girders walled-in the columns, and supporting the wooden structures date from autumn/winter of 1458/1459. The woodcrafts of the wing have been finished in the same period of the main body, but the dates of the analysis go from 1421/22 and 1459/60.

Door’s main beam, added after a testamentary division

In the northern part, beyond the arch doors on the barn access, there is a door surmounted by a wooden main beam, on which a cross is carved. According to the analysis of the only sample extractable, we can assert that the wood used for the main beam come from a tree chopped down in 1545”

Claudine Remacle