Castel Vuillier et ses abords ou le castel, façades et toitures du bâtiment annexe et du pavillon des Eaux-Vives et les parcelles de la propriété de Gaston Vuillier

English translation

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History

Located on a rocky spur overlooking La Montane, the town of Gimel is known for its waterfalls consisting of three successive falls: the Grand Saut of 45 metres, the Redole of 38 metres and the Queue de Cheval of 60 metres. The latter plunges into the 'gouffre de l'Inferno'. The waterfall site was in fact one of the first sites classified (on 23 May 1912) under the law of 21 April 1906 among sites and natural monuments of artistic character thanks to the action of Gaston Vuillier. Born in 1845 in Perpignan, a great illustrator-reporter, he was a leading figure in the dissemination of travel drawing at the end of the 19th century (Le Tour du Monde, Le Magasin pittoresque); portraitist of celebrities, he collaborated on several magazines (Le Monde illustré, ...); landscape painter, notably of the Limousin region (he stayed from 1880 onwards in Crozant-Creuse) which he exhibited at the Salon des artistes français (where he was honoured from 1882), he played a major role in the history of landscape (and more particularly in that of the Beauquier law). His work is today dispersed in private or public collections (museums of Tulle, Brive, Cahors, Perpignan, Besançon, town hall of Gimel-les-Cascades, ...) and is regularly highlighted by exhibitions (Tulle, Gimel, Carcassonne, Corte, Montbrison and soon Brive). It was on the occasion of one of these reportages that he became acquainted with the Limousin region and notably the Corrèze. He settled in Gimel in 1896 where he acquired a house situated at the southern tip of the town closest to the waterfalls which he transformed into a castle, then bought the land to arrange a park with stairs, observation points and a chalet restaurant, called the 'Pavilion of Living Waters', allowing one to follow the course of the waterfalls. He obtained the classification of the waterfall site in 1912 to counter the project of an Alsatian industrialist to use the power of the falls to produce electricity. Gaston Vuillier died in Gimel on 2 February 1915. The castle and its surroundings were sold by his heirs in 1922 to a family of Gimel who did not live there and resold it in 1933. The building, of modest size, comprises three levels of habitation, one of which is roof space, and a cellar accessible from the outside. Inside, the arrangements are those of the time of G. Vuillier: living room, kitchen on the ground floor; bedroom and artist's studio on the first floor and service rooms in the roof space. A small annexe building, facing the entrance, may have served as a shed or studio. Behind the castle a terraced garden develops overlooking the waterfalls.