The whole of Richelieu Park is 475 hectares and it is surrounded by a mostly intact wall. The wall was built between 1631 and 1642 at the same time as Cardinal Richelieu's château, which was demolished in 1835. The seven kilometres of wall however is still standing. It is visible that it has been repaired many times and there is a partial collapse at the moment awaiting repair. The wall skirts our village behind the church.
 |
| Wall as seen from the main road (D749) from Braye to Richelieu |
|
 |
| Looking towards what was the château main entrance |
 |
| Looking towards Braye |
 |
| Looking towards the D757 |
The track in the last two photos runs from Braye to the D757 and is used by locals as a short cut to the supermarket. It is said that at the time many properties were demolished to provide the stone to build the wall. I have done a quick, tongue-in-cheek, calculation based on the wall being 2.5mtrs high and 0.5mtrs thick and a length of 7000mtrs. This gives 8750 cubic metres of stone which at 2.4 tonnes a cubic metre gives a total of 21,000 tonnes of the stuff!! Whow!!! How long did it take to build...... I think I will pass on that one.
No comments:
Post a Comment