Ayas, Aosta Valley 2.9

Ayas is a comune sparso in the Aosta Valley region of northwestern Italy, with 1359 inhabitants in 2010.GeographyIt is made up of several frazioni (locally officially called hameaux, in French), the two major ones being Antagnod which holds the town hall and the main parish, and Champoluc. All the frazioni of Ayas were combined under the one jurisdictional parish of Saint-Martin d'Antagnod in 1761. They remained combined in this way until the new parish of Sainte-Anne of Champoluc was built in 1946. The comune of Ayas lies up the Ayas valley from Brusson.Physical geographyThe comune of Ayas occupies the upper part of the homonymous valley at the feet of the great peaks of the Pennine Alps, which separate it from Zermatt in the Mattertal (Switzerland) and mark the border between Italy and Switzerland. The most notable of these peaks are Castor (4,226 m), Pollux (4,091 m) and the Breithorn (4,165 m), the highest peaks of Monte Rosa Massif's glacier.Another important glacier is the Grand Glacier of Verra. It is the principal source of the Évançon, which flows down the Val d'Ayas and empties into the Dora Baltea (Doire baltée).