Elegant and harmonious in proportions and decorations, the grolla is one of the most typical wooden objects of the local craftwork. It looks, nowadays, like a wine chalice of valuable wood with lid, supported by a short stalk rested on a wide base and it can reach the capacity of two litres; the Coppa dell'amicizia (friendship's Cup), instead, convex and lower, has a lid carved in bunch or in vineyard's leaf and it is provided with spouts for drinking the traditional coffee. They were both used in order to drink à la ronde (by turns), but, although the Cup is still often employed, today the grolla has just a symbolic and ornamental meaning. The different realisations range from the linear simplicity to the plentiful decoration, with geometrical carvings, bunches and vine-leaves, little heads of angels and holy monograms, mountain flowers and interlaced hearts.
The local popular tradition tells about its descent from the sacred Graal. According to the expert in the history of the Aosta Valley J. Brocherel, the shape and the name of the Cup possibly came in the Valley thanks to the "pilgrims coming from the Burgundy, probably origin of the grolla". Consulting an old writing, he discovered that some nobles, between them the Duke of Orléans and Amedeo VIII of Savoy, owned at least one grolla with the same features of those described in the Graal's events; it was a gold chalice with lid, decorated with pearls and sapphires. The connection between these courts and the Lords of the Aosta Valley, especially the Challant family, and the presence in Aosta of several goldsmith's workshops, let us presume that similar objects existed in the churches but also in the castles of the Valley.
As time passed, the grolla, from the rare golden furnishing of the aristocracy, became a wooden article for the common people, a wine cup very widespread that correspond to one of the most charming forms of art of our craftwork. It is a kind of symbol of the region and it keeps on preserve the mystery of its origins and its special shape.
The supposition is really plenty of fascination: Grolla from Graal!
Valgrisenche is the home of the original weaving, with a Renaissance style, of rustic fabrics, which take the form of garments, blankets and carpets, illumianted by "stains" of colour and geometric decorations.
(From regional website www.regione.vda.it).