Oliferne

the Peak of Oliferne is a mountain of 807 meters altitude located in France in the department of the the Jura. It is on the commune of Vescles, in the Canton of Arinthod. More precisely Oliferne dominates the valley of the Ain and is thus located on the limit between the departments of the Ain and the the Jura.

The Castle of Oliferne

The Château of Oliferne was built towards 1230 by Jean de Chalon. To 807 m of altitude, that is to say 500 m with the top of the valley of the Ain, the mount also dominates the valleys Bienne and the Valouse but also the Lyonese, the Savoy, the Bugey, the Swiss , the Bresse, the Burgundy. The Roman colonies established a tower of observation here in order to control navigation on the Bienne and the Ain.

The Château was destroyed at the 16th century by the troops of Henri IV, but of the ruins remain still today in the shape of vestiges of the keep of the curtains and enclosing walls. A building site of restoration is led there by Adapemont (Association for the Development and the Installation of the Small Mountain).

Oliferne, place rich in legends

According to the works of the folkorist Desired Monnier , Oliferne is the theater " of enchantements". It evokes the mysteries of the night hunter, a phantom hunter which tracks the stray ones in a terrible hunt with the moonlight, and Vouivre, strange winged snake spitting of fire and having on its face, like single eye, a blazing diamond named escarboucle.

Colossal “the Dictionary of the Common of the Jura” of Alphonse Rousset of 1854, milked of all the aspects of Oliferne, that it are historical with its role of border at the time of the Gaulois, the presence of a Romaine tower under the Antiquité and finally the construction of the Château by the lords of Chalon. Castle which was taken by brigands in 1363, destroyed shortly after and rebuilt at the 16th century for better being ruined after, like all the inhabitants of the borough, in 1592 by the armies of King de France at the time of the wars of Frank County. The text of Rousset is most complete, most detailed and a lugubrious Légende is mentioned there:

The lord of Oliferne was a cheating and cruel man, constantly in war with his neighbors. One day, its enemies managed to take the fort, and the lord successful to flee by an underground, but his/her three daughters had remained with the Château. By hatred, the attackers locked up them in three barrels furnished with points and threw them along the slopes of the peak of Oliferne, where they descended until in the valley of the Ain. They reappeared opposite in the shape of three rocks, now called the three damettes.

Rousset is also the author of these splendid lines which depict with wonder the framework of Oliferne:

to hear the villagers of Vescles, Cops and Boutavant speech of all the wonders and the enchantments whose Oliferne was the theater, one would believe to listen to the admirable epopee of the novels of the Table-Round which the bards composed in the druidic forest of Brocéliande.

Other authors were interested in Oliferne, and some texts conceal astonishing information: For example a reference of the directory of the Jura of 1810 fact mention of the presence of Bear to Oliferne. Or much better: A passage of the picturesque voyages in old France , in 1820, of Charles Nodier, gives us a beautiful description of the site, the account of the legends and he also speaks about Ours. Oliferne would be thus the last place of Franche-Comté to have sheltered Ours!

The text more " romantique" of all is without any doubt the extract of the “valleys of the Bugey” writes by the Baron Ravérat . In this book, the Baron makes a terrifying account of the Légende of Oliferne. He starts with long and distressing description of the ruins of the Château dominating the peak. He depicts a lugubrious place, disaster which the peasants cross while running of fear of being caught up with by the spectra which haunt this mountain. Then, he tells a horrible history. The latter Légende resembles to mistake there with that of Rousset, with the notable difference, that the three girls are not any more the girls of the lord of Oliferne but his prisoners, and that the attackers their are promised in marriage come to tear off them with another blue beard. The final torment is the work of the lord, who, seeing his end coming is avenged for the knights in their returning their promised locked up in a barrel furnished with points which spouted out top of the ramparts in flames, to roll to the river of Ain where they reappeared in the shape of three rocks which are, this time at the foot of the peak and not opposite like Rousset says it. Ravérat tells this fable in a romantic prose that would not disavow the best authors of his time. But its reason is not left in sleep because the large Baron concludes from it that these legends is only the fruit of the collective fear in front of the Télégraphe installed on the mountain shortly after the Révolution and who gave to the peak his name of “Signal of Oliferne”.

The found seal with Oliferne

A few years ago, a metal Sceau was found on the slopes of the Château of Oliferne. The Sceau was deciphered recently. A test of complete analysis is available on this article in format pdf. Nevertheless this analysis is dubious and it is the object currently complementary study.

To summarize the analysis, the characteristics of the Sceau indicate that it would have belonged has an ecclesiastic of rather low condition (priest, vicar or monk). It bore the name of Cidonis of Assembles-Desiderio or Sidoine de Montdidier in French. Its name would be written in Spanish, but this is discussed. The Franche County was indeed under Spanish domination during long years. The crossbow being reproduced on the Sceau comes owing to the fact that it probably had on its weapons this object.

Lastly, it would date from the end of the 16th century because of the date of the last destruction of the Château (1592) and of the use of this type of Sceau at this period. But this date is also called in question and it could be former.

See too

Small Mountain

External bonds

the Community of communes Valous' Ain
Adapemont
the commune of Vescles
a ballade devoted to Oliferne
Tourist office of the country of the lakes and small mountain