Rochetaillée (the Loire)
See also: Rochetaillée (homonymy)
Rochetaillée is a district of the town of Saint-Etienne with a statute of Commune partner.
Geography and demography
The village of Rochetaillée
(culminating point of Saint-Etienne) is perched between 775 and 1417 meters of altitude, in the solid mass of the
Pilat. With the census of
1999, its population was of 957 inhabitants (the
Rupisciciens ). Rochetaillée depends administratively on
Saint-Etienne being part of its second district since
1973 with a statute of Commune partner.
The village is located on a Watershed between two seas with two rivers: the Furan (pertaining to the Area catchment the Loire) and the Janon (pertaining to the catchment area of the the Rhone).
Tourism and leisures
Its date of construction remains unknown but one finds at least his trace in the literature in
1173. Located on a rock piton which made it inaccessible to north, the castle was composed of four turns of which three remain today.
The baptismal font goes back to
1545. The vault of the Nef (intersecting ribs) is of Gothic Style but the work carried out at the 16th century partly confers a
Renaissance style on the building, in particular with the stained glasses. The village has also a Chapelle Notre Dame (18th century), dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.
Decided in
1858 and inaugurated in
1866, the dam Rochetaillée, also said stopping of the Pit of Hell, is a gravity dam consrtuit by engineers Graeff, Count and Grandchamp de Montgolfier. It was one of the first stopping " poids" of Europe.
The neighborhoods are an ideal place for the walk or the Cyclisme through fir trees and rock faces, with a Cascade (from which the nickname comes from the Pit of Hell) and one gone up of the stopping by a tortuous staircase and passages cut in the roche.
It has a capacity of 1.105.000 m3 and is used like retarder of raw of Furan.
It is also a stopping weight carried out by engineers Lefort, Jollois and Duplay in
1878. It has a capacity of 950.000 m3 and allows the drinking water supply of the ville.
Between the two stoppings a lock was set up, to control the course of Furan.
Building builds between
1859 and
1862 which consists of an immense network of small drains which leads all the sources of the national forest around the
Bessat.
The splendid Rock Corbières (110 m in height), rock peak that some call “the tooth of the devil”, offers a more complete site of Escalade of the Loire with many ways shone upon or not according to the period (ways in the shade for the hot periods and ways shone upon for the cold periods). All types of difficulties there are found (of the 4 to the 8).
A
Via ferrata located vis-a-vis the wall of the stopping of the Pit of Hell, with two ways for the children (PD) and for the adults (D).
The art gallery
the Watch tower , created in
1998, accommodates various exposures of artists and local craftsmen.
It takes place each year the second weekend of September.
See too