Oingt

Word of Mouth

During the Jurassic period, the Beaujolais region was covered by an inland sea. Whilst iron oxide gives the local stone its yellow hue, it is the sedimentation of tiny marine animals – crinoids – that gives the limestone its shimmering appearance. Once known as the ‘poor man’s stone’ and used by villagers to build their homes, this golden stone enjoyed its heyday during the Renaissance, when wealthy families from Lyon chose it as the material of choice for their mansions. At the end of the 19th century, the exodus caused by the phylloxera crisis and the advent of the railway, which transported cheap stone, brought this success to a halt. Since the 1960s, growing awareness of this geological feature and its significance for the rural heritage has once again made golden stone the charming hallmark of the South Beaujolais.