PARC DES ROCHES ET PROMENADE DU CONA

The Parc des Roches, classified as a Remarkable Garden by the Ministry of Culture, is located below the Promenade du Côna, a majestic avenue of linden trees built from 1760 on the ridge of the spur that carried the castle and its chapel, now collegiate church Notre-Dame, dominating the course of the Meuse.

On the site of an old stone quarry and village gardens, Hyacinthe Mutel, between 1816 and 1851, took advantage of the rocky cliffs to create a romantic landscape combining artificial and natural elements: stairs, cadoles (shelters) and lodges. dry stones, local and imported trees, limestone cliffs whose wild appearance is amplified by dry stone walls and false ruins that merge with them. By a subtle conception, Mutel proposes a journey in a picturesque landscape where the intimate alternates with the sublime, deeply touching the soul of the walker.

The Côna Promenade (a word that reflects the topography: the hill is cone-shaped), connects Notre-Dame Church, built in 1756, from which one can contemplate a beautiful panorama of the valley, and the Calvary. All along the promenade, along the walls of the gardens that keep the imprint of the castle destroyed, look over the old town, fortified in the thirteenth century.

Continuing the walk, we arrive at the small oratory, built in memory of a duel that, in the sixteenth century, outraged the population. The Virgin of mercy of the eighteenth century that shelters this oratory probably comes from the chapel of the Annonciades, transformed in the Revolution in civil building. From the oratory, you can go down the "104", a picturesque stone staircase that runs along the old fortification and allows you to reach the village.

At the southern end of the Cna walk is the Calvary, erected in 1697 and rebuilt in 1759. The cross, struck by lightning and burned, has been rebuilt several times until today, which dates from 2000 At his foot is a pietà. Continuing the walk, one reaches a panorama on the high valley of the Meuse.