Aosta - Collegiata di Sant'Orso

The collegiate church, dedicated to Saint Ursus of Aosta, existed here already in Carolingian times. Ursus, who may have been Irish, was a missionary, who supported the Bishop of Aosta. When an Arian became bishop of Aosta, Ursus and other canons left the cathedral and settled outside the walls of Aosta at the present site of the collegiate church of Saint Ursus.

A Romanesque church was built around 1000, but this church got rebuilt, altered and enlarged many times over the centuries.

The crypt is the oldest part of the collegiate church. Here the relics of Saint Ursus were kept. In the 12th century the relics of Aosta´s patron Saint Gratus of Aosta were "translated" to this crypt - and so even more pilgrims walked through here.