Museum Overview
Paul Déplaude, a member of the Patrimoine en Pays Mornantais (PPM) association, takes us on a journey to discover an exceptional wealth of our vernacular heritage: the dry stone walls and constructions found in our territory.
Since the Neolithic period, dry stone has been extracted on site to delimit fields, develop well-exposed cultivable areas, contain newly domesticated animals, manage water resources, protect traffic routes and many other uses.
These works were amplified at the beginning of the industrial revolution in order to feed a growing population, particularly in our country.
These constructions are certainly born of necessity, but they are also the expression of a true vernacular art of the peasant-masons. Moreover, the art of dry stone walling has been listed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2018.
So the PPM association had the ambition at the beginning of 2023 to take up the challenge of saving this heritage from the fatal decline to which it seems destined by an unprecedented mobilization, and thus contribute to strengthening the attractiveness of our landscapes.
This project will be developed during this conference.