Our hilltop villages Aouste-sur-Sye

As early as 500 BC, the village of Aouste was a stopover on the "Tin Road". At the beginning of our era, the emperor Augustus established a post house (mansio) on the site of a Gallic village, to welcome imperial messengers and travellers. It then became a city under Roman law, and around the 9th century, "Augusta Vocontiorum" became Aosta. In the Middle Ages, the city was an important stopover on the road to Italy and on the route from Bordeaux to Jerusalem. Towards the end of the 10th century, the Arnauds incorporated the town into the territory of Crest. They strengthened the castle, which has now disappeared, and the ramparts, some of which are still visible. From the second half of the 12th century onwards, the bishops of Die and the Poitiers, counts of Valentinois, were at loggerheads (Episcopal War). Following the reunion of the bishoprics of Valence and Die, Amédée de Roussillon, 1st bishop of the two reunited dioceses, plundered Aosta and destroyed its fortifications. These were rebuilt by the Counts of Valentinois in the 14th century. Aouste became a flourishing town thanks to trade and the manufacture of clay pipes, and was also home to a Jewish community. Towards the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries, the town was marked by the Wars of Religion, (devastating passage of the Dukes of Montbrun and Lesdiguières). It was then pillaged by the Count of Sault: this was the "sack of Aosta" or "the martyrdom of the quiet town of Aosta". The 19th century was a flourishing one. It was characterized by economic progress (textiles, paper mills, agriculture) and urban renewal (temple, church, school, bridge, railroad...). In 1894, electricity was installed in public buildings - the same year as Lyon and 10 years before Marseille! That same year, Aoste officially became Aouste. On the morning of July 21, 1944, the maquisards of the Chapoutat company, tasked with slowing the advance of German troops towards the Vercors, organized the "Grands Chenaux battles". A month later, Resistance fighters liberated the valley, facilitating the advance of troops from the 117th Cavalry Task Force Butler; the Americans set up a field hospital during the "Battle of Montélimar". Two elements of a Gallo-Roman mausoleum are located near the Place de la Mairie. Aided by the information posted in the narrow streets of the historic center, visitors can then discover the memories of a rather eventful past.