This is how the elders of Vercorin rather pompously referred to the house of Chastonay.
The house was built by count Antoine Pancrace de Courten and his wife Catherine Ballet. The illustrious builder was Lieutenant General of the Courten Regiment in the service of the King of France. Since 1883, it has been owned by the de Chastonay family through marriage. The two venerable lime trees were built at the same time as the house, and are now well over two hundred years old!
The building faces south-east/north-west.
To the west, the hipped roof, known as the "French roof", protects a small balcony overlooking the plain, Sierre and the Bernese Alps.
To the south and north, two dormer windows, or "chiens-assis", frame a chimney.
The sundial on the south facade extends onto the east facade; a rare feature is that it adjoins a moondial, barely visible in the interlacing branches of a cherry tree.
Like the titled residences, the shutters are painted with geometric motifs in the colours of the de Courten coat of arms (yellow: gold / red: gules / black: sand). These motifs differ depending on whether the shutters are closed or open (closed shutters: the rhombus symbolises an enclosed space; open shutters: the undulating pattern expresses both the continuity and division of time, the cycle of seasons and holidays).
