Courmayeur

Courmayeur appears in medieval documents as Curia majori, and the maps of Ortelius in the 16th century marked it as Auri Fodinæ, "gold mines", for the gold found in the Val Ferret; old silver-lead mines in the massif, one known as the Trou des Romains, may go back to Roman times. The village's first fame came in the 17th century from its four sulphurous springs, which made it a spa resort.

In the second half of the 18th century the Genevan naturalist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure explored the massif from here with a guide from Pré-Saint-Didier, looking for a route up Mont Blanc, though the first ascent in 1786 was made from the French side. The 19th-century fashion for alpinism made Courmayeur, with Chamonix and Zermatt, one of the capitals of mountaineering, and Italy's first society of alpine guides was founded here in 1850. Members of the royal family stayed regularly in the 19th century, and in the 20th century the village grew into a ski resort.

Under Fascism its French name was Italianised to Cormaiore, from 1939 until 1946. The Mont Blanc Tunnel to Chamonix opened in 1965, making the town a main gateway between Italy and France; the presidents of the two countries were received at a villa in the town on the day of the opening. In 2014 a referendum to rename the commune Courmayeur-Mont-Blanc failed to reach its quorum, and in 2015 the rotating Skyway Monte Bianco replaced the old cable car to Pointe Helbronner.

The mountains are the culture here. The guides' museum on the main square honours the profession that made the town's name, and the town is the start and finish of the Tor des Géants, a 330-kilometre trail race round the Aosta Valley, and the starting point of the CCC race in the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc week. The Giro d'Italia ended a stage here in 1959, the year the town also hosted the Biathlon World Championships, and Courmayeur is the centre of ice hockey in the Aosta Valley, with its rink in Dolonne.

Like the rest of the Valdigne, the upper part of the valley, Courmayeur keeps local traditions: the Badoche folk celebration, led by the group Les Badochys, and palet, a traditional Valdostan game played in the commune. French place names were restored after the Second World War, and the town's name in the local Valdostan patois is Croméyeui. A statue and a botanical park at Plan-Gorret honour the abbé Joseph-Marie Henry, priest, botanist and historian, after whom the main square is also named.

The town's setting has drawn film-makers: scenes of Kingsman: The Golden Circle were shot on the Skyway, and parts of the film Diabolik were shot in the town. Along Via Roma, the early-evening aperitivo is a fixed part of the resort's social life in both seasons.

The commune had 2,494 residents at the end of 2025, spread between the town centre and hamlets such as Dolonne, Entrèves, La Palud, La Saxe and Villair. It is the westernmost commune of the Aosta Valley and the only one in Italy that borders both France and Switzerland. Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Italy, lies partly within the commune, which shares it with Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and Chamonix in France.

Tourism is the economy, in winter and summer, and the population swells far beyond its resident number in the ski season and in July and August; between the seasons the town is quiet and many businesses close. The tunnel brings a steady stream of heavy traffic up the valley to France.

The mountain itself is a constant presence in local life. The Mont de La Saxe landslide above the hamlet of La Saxe is watched closely by geologists after its movement accelerated, and the Fondazione Montagna Sicura, based at Villard de la Palud, carries out research on mountain safety, climate change, glaciers and snow.

Courmayeur eats in the Alpine style of the Aosta Valley, with butter, cheese and cured meat in place of olive oil. The central ingredient is fontina, a cow's-milk cheese made in the valley since the 12th century; the Aosta Valley version has a protected designation of origin and must be made from unpasteurised milk from a single milking. It is the basis of fonduta alla valdostana, fontina whipped with milk, eggs and truffles, and mature fontina, though hard, still melts well.

Motsetta, or mocetta, is a dried cold cut made across the valley from lean cuts of meat flavoured with garlic, bay leaf, rosemary, sage and other mountain herbs, then salted. The local wine is Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle, a white made from the Prié blanc grape just down the valley, where vineyards at up to 1,200 metres are the highest in Europe and, untouched by phylloxera, still grow on ungrafted rootstock. After a meal comes génépy, a herbal liqueur made by steeping the flowering tops of Alpine wormwood in alcohol, traditionally taken neat.

Most restaurants line Via Roma and its side streets, and more stand up the mountain at Plan Checrouit, serving skiers at lunch and staying open in the evening. Many bars on the main street lay out snacks with drinks at aperitivo time.