Ratchet

Between guided walk and landscape issues
Close to the town of Saint-Étienne about 7 km, integrated in a landscape of medium mountain (an average altitude of 750 meters), belonging to the Regional Natural Park of Pilat, the picturesque village of Rochetaillée presents a remarkable medieval heritage but also an exceptional geographical site between mountains and valleys, structuring a quality of life between memories and traditions over time in a green setting.
Thus, the first mention of the site begins in 1173, called the permutio. It was in fact a territorial transaction between the Count of Forez Guy II and the Archbishop of Lyon, Guichard de Pontigny, thus putting an end to a regional feudal war. The question of toponymy actually refers to the singularity of the relief, but also to the emergence of a military tower monitoring the valleys (the Furan valley, the Janon valley). Thus, this feudal-vassal dimension built the bases of the fortified village whose center is the current medieval castle dating from the 13th century in an architecture influenced by the Arab-Muslim world (the construction of round towers in the temporality of King Philippe-Auguste, the improvement of the defensive character dating from the 16th century in the context of the Wars of Religion). In addition, feudal structures permeate the buildings, where the presence of the ramparts remains visible in medieval architectural legacies along the alleys of this village of character. Traces and memories are thus perceived in multiple historical influences, between the building of the parish church in the Middle Ages, the construction of a chapel dedicated to the protection of the Virgin in the eighteenth century on the heights, but also by the succession of seigneurial families, becoming barony in the seventeenth century with the Bernou de Nantas.
However, landscape frames also remain strongly present in the eyes (the quartz block serving as the basis for the castral building, a current forest landscape between the layering of vegetation associated with the mountain climate and the palimpsests of agricultural operations between toponymies and topographies, such as the watershed), but also between nature and the visible frames of ecosystems to be protected and preserved in the stakes of sustainable development and this, in a village of tradition and remarkable architectural character.