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While you can already go to the next station, we will first familiarise you a bit with the history of Boisbuchet: By the way, the origin of the name of this domain has still not been clarified: Some say that it refers to the fact that brushwood was once collected here to make fires. Others think that the name means that there were pyres here on which witches were burned.
In any case, Boisbuchet has been an agricultural and forestry domain for centuries, in the changing hands of noble families. The castle you see at the top of the hill is not the first one on Boisbuchet either: in a 17th century document, the former manor house stands much closer to the river on the pastureland that lies along the bank here. Frequent floods of the Vienne were probably the reason why this rather large building was demolished and a castle was built on top of the hill instead.
However, during the French Revolution, this too was destroyed and what you see today is a smaller chateau, built around 1870 as the centre of a domaine which then comprised about 20 farms and far more land than today. Until the 20th century, the fields were tilled with oxen and to this day no chemicals were used for fertilisation.
In 1987, the German art historian and entrepreneur Alexander von Vegesack bought Boisbuchet together with its then remaining 150 hectares of woods and meadows, two farms, and other farm buildings. One of these is the mill at the beginning of our trail. It dates from the 17th century and is the oldest surviving building on the estate.
Today, Boisbuchet is dominated by this impressively perched castle, around which the landscape architect Chazaud laid out a magnificent park in 1864. In this ensemble in the midst of the hilly topography along the Vienne river, the buildings and plantings flow smoothly into woods and meadows, which are left on their own.
Alexander von Vegesack, who always experiences culture as an adventure, has found this place to be the ideal basis for freely exploring and communicating the shaping of the human environment in harmony with nature and the countryside. For this purpose, Boisbuchet organises workshops, exhibitions, guided tours, lectures and other events, publishes books and articles on the internet in cooperation with local, national and international institutions and experts. And, of course, the forest trail you are visiting today is part of this.
