It happened on 19 September
The Fontainebleau region opens its doors
This Saturday the 19th and tomorrow, Sunday, are the 43rd European Heritage Days. There are two themes this year: photographic heritage and heritage at risk.
In Fontainebleau, The castle is open to the public free of charge from 9.30 am to 6 pm, last admission at 5.15 pm. The Imperial Theatre is open exceptionally, without the need for a booking, along with the Oval Courtyard, the Golden Gate and the Jeu de Paume.
The Department is opening several of its sites free of charge, including three here: the Stéphane Mallarmé Museum in Vulaines-sur-Seine, the Bourdelle Museum and Gardens in Barbizon, and the Île-de-France Museum of Prehistory in Nemours.
The Ice Man
On 19 September 1991, two German walkers, Erika and Helmut Simon, come across a body that had been recovered from the ice at an altitude of 3,210 metres, in the Ötztal Alps.
At first, it was thought to be a recent mountaineering accident. It is a natural mummy dating back some 5,300 years.
It lay 92.56 metres from the border. On the Italian side. We took the measurements.
Before becoming a heritage site to be photographed, the forest was a subject for photographers
This year’s theme, the heritage of photography, has a direct resonance here. Between 1849 and 1857, and particularly in 1851 and 1852, Gustave Le Gray photographed the Forest of Fontainebleau. The Pavé de Chailly, the Bas-Bréau, the Épine crossroads. First as calotypes, then on albumen paper, sometimes with a separately photographed sky pasted onto them.
Ten years later, it was the Barbizon painters who secured protection for these very same motifs. The Imperial Decree of 18 July 1861 established the artistic series of the forest, which the ONF describes as being among the world’s first protected natural areas. The 1953 integral biological reserves were established as a result.
We protected the forest because artists thought it was beautiful.
