Close protection
The growing notoriety of the site, thanks to the ascent of the Roche de Solutré by François Mitterrand each year between 1946 and 1994, triggered a sharp increase in attendance. With more than 200 visitors per year, erosion of the environment and soil, illegal parking, increase in waste, incivility and conflicts of use have led the region's elected officials to take measures to deal with the consequences of this influx of visitors.
The multiplication of uses
Turn by turn site tourism, site scientific, recreational site, landscaped site, site of pilgrimage or peri-urban green space, the attendance stems from very different motivations. She puts in hazard not only the environment, but also, in the absence of reception infrastructure and secure routes, the public.
Although devoting his celebrity, these very varied uses generate very little economical consequences for the municipalities. This results in the absence of resources necessary for the maintenance and management of the site, generating nuisance for the residents
A fragile landscape
Le landscape, even protected by a law aimed at “maintaining it as it is”, is never fixed. He is evolving. The abandonment of practices of pasture me on limestone lawns leaves the way for a closure of the environment. Without human intervention, the overgrowth threatens the quality of landscapes and this spontaneous process of revegetation risks trivializing it.
In the absence of active management, durable and coordinated, many others degradations of the site appear. The walls of dry stone, cadoles and wash houses are withering away. These elements of small heritage participate in the spirit of the place but are left abandoned and depreciate the surroundings of the site, while other elements harm it, such as advertising panels. If he does not benefit from any preservation measure, this remarkable site is coming to an end threat.
©Stéphane GodinAct to preserve
Since 1994, the municipalities of Solutré-Pouilly and Vergisson have mobilized and requested state aid for a overall project. In 1996, the approach “ Operation Large Site " is thrown.
Therefore, an ambitious program of preservation, F&B and valorization of this exceptional national heritage is implemented. The actions carried out greatly improve the conditions of access and visit to the site, both on a functional level (complete recovery and relocation of the parking, repair of access trails to rocks, organization of paths hikes), that for the interpretation and understanding of the of the place. THE connections between the natural environments of the site, its history, its wine-growing activity, are now well expressed in the equipment (House of the Grand Site, Prehistory Museum) and mediation tools: interpretive signage, communication supports, etc.
The reintroduction of pasture on the summits of Roches de Solutré and Vergisson, Mont de Pouilly and Monsard, allows us to fight against the overgrowth limestone lawns.
Between 2007 and 2023, the Landscape Management Brigade, composed of people in professional reintegration, focused on renovate small rural heritage.
recognition of the label
In 2013, Grand Site of France label, issued by the Ministry of Ecology, crowns near twenty years of effort to restore the site. It motivates and encourages local decision-makers to commit to a new action plan.
Nourished by a multi-millennial history, combining the past with the present and the present with the future, the Grand Site of France Solutré Pouilly Vergisson is resolutely focused on the future.