Bourgeoisie de St-Gingolph: Valais, chestnut groves

Highlighting the cultivation of Swiss chestnuts

The Valais project to upgrade the landscape and environment of St-Gingolph’s chestnut heritage has several objectives:

To revitalise 21 hectares of historic chestnut groves, developing the local chestnut tree sites once threatened by disease (Castanea sativa) and planting 2000 young plants;
To preserve 65 endemic chestnut varieties, promoting plant biodiversity;
To highlight the Swiss landscape, supporting the development of local know-how, in particular by rehabilitating the boichons: circular stone structures intended to preserve chestnuts;
To raise awareness about chestnut cultivation, creating an educational programme and producing a specialised publication.

Chestnut trees in front of a misty mountain landscape

The project meets several criteria defined at the Rio de Janeiro Summit held in 1992:

Environmental dimension through the preservation of biodiversity
Landscape dimension through the development of a traditional landscape
Local dimension through the promotion of Swiss know-how

Presentation of the Bourgeoisie de St-Gingolph association

A member of the Federation of Valais Bourgeoisies, the association is a centuries-old institution which pursues the following objectives to serve the municipality:

Asset management
Heritage preservation
Management of buildings, forests and mountain pastures
Promotion of local biodiversity

Impressions

People planting chestnut seedlings

A woman and a little girl sitting by some chestnut plants

Goats near a chestnut tree

Chestnut trees

Chestnut trees on a slope

Chestnut trees on a slope overlooking the lake

Chestnut trees in the evening light

Chestnut trees with the lake and mountains in the background

Chestnut trees with the mountains in the background

Chestnut trees in front of the lake and a mountain landscape

Chestnut trees on a slope in front of a mountain landscape

Children with their supervisor in front of a chestnut tree

Children near chestnut trees

Groups of children learning about chestnut trees

People planting a young chestnut seedling

Men planting chestnut seedlings

Lake with chestnut trees and mountain

Two goats on a slope with chestnut trees