Saint Sauveur des Pourcils

6 points of interest

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  A cemetery that reveals histories

  The small cemetery of Saint-Sauveur des Pourcils, so peaceful today, reveals a rich and eventful history. The gravestones bear the names of Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim families. This religious plurality is partly due to the arrival in the 20th century of foreign workers to mine argentiferous lead and copper in the neighbouring hamlet of Villemagne. During the murky period of World War II, the wife of a resistance fighter and her six children took refuge in the surrounding area. The Muslim graves bear witness to the period following the Algerian War when a camp for harkis was set up in the region. These Algerian Muslims, who had served in the French army, were employed by the French Forestry Office for the reforestation of the Aigoual massif.

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  A church at the heart of it all

  Why was such an imposing church built in a small hamlet? The profound attachment of the parishioners to their place of worship was key. The church was destroyed three times, by Protestants (1562 and 1703) and by the ravages of time (1848). But each time the parishioners who lived in neighbouring hamlets decided to rebuild it. Despite this determination, the church and cemetery were eventually transferred to Camprieu (1871). The episcopal authorities cited difficulties in accessing the place of worship and disagreements between the mayor and parish priest. The local faithful, who were opposed to the transfer, managed to keep masses for the yearly pilgrimage, baptisms, funerals and weddings in St-Sauveur.

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  Un domaine agricole reboisé

  Today, the hamlet of Saint-Sauveur des Pourcils is surrounded by trees but in the 19th century the Aigoual massif was bare! Its reforestation began as a state programme managed by foresters. The French Forestry Office bought many farm estates to turn them into foresters’ houses. Saint-Sauveur des Pourcils had all the required characteristics: buildings for housing foresters; varied soils; good sun exposure; and water nearby (the river below). The foresters set up a tree nursery to grow young trees and an arboretum to test how well-adapted different species were.

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  Castle or farm estate?

  In the 12th century, minor vassal lords of the Roquefeuil family ruled from a castle at Saint-Sauveur des Pourcils. They lived in autarky with their livestock, large pastures and a share of the farmers’ harvests. No remains from that period survive. The main building looks more like a farmhouse. Over the centuries, the castle has become a large farm estate with outbuildings.

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  Arboretum

  To begin with, arboretums were experiments to study the behaviour of tree species introduced to the massif as part of the reforestation programme from the late 19th century on. Over time, their scientific character gave way to a more educational and ornamental outlook. On the Aigoual, the French Forestry Office maintains a network of arboretums that are representative of the forest’s diversity and of the work carried out by foresters on the massif since the early 20th century.
  The waymarked circuit only covers a part of the vast arboretum.

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  La Boissière farm

  La Boissière farm was abandoned by its inhabitants when Mont Aigoual was reforested. A salary from the French National Water and Forestry Commission was so much more secure than the meagre revenues from a farmer’s endless work. You pass through the farm’s porch and walk on its threshing floor – but there are no chickens or cereals on the threshing floor, and no herds ambling to the meadow. Today the forest has won.