reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
in the
Nièvre
Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019.department,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
,"Barrage des Settons" Patrimoine du Morvan (in French). with a surface area of . Supplied mainly by the River Cure, it is situated in the heart of
Morvan Regional Natural Park
Morvan Regional Natural Park (French: ''Parc naturel régional du Morvan'') is a protected area of woodlands, lakes and traditional farmland in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of central France. It covers a total area of and extends through f ...
The reservoir, whose perimeter exceeds , has an average depth of and is situated at an altitude of . It was formed between 1854 to 1861 by a high granite dam. The reservoir was intended to regulate traffic on the
Yonne River
The Yonne () is a river in France, a left-bank tributary of the Seine. It is long. The river gives its name to the Yonne ''département''. It rises in the Nièvre ''département'', in the Morvan hills near Château-Chinon. It flows into the r ...
and help allow
timber rafting
Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest mean ...
to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
.
History
Construction
The first surveys date back to the time of
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
, but these were never completed. They were restarted under the command of André Dupin. On 15 July 1854, the work was contracted to Perrichon, an entrepreneur from Nevers. Meanwhile, the execution of the work was carried out by Cambuzat, Lepeuple and Otry of Labrit. The construction of the dam was started in 1854 and finished in 1858. The dam was constructed from granite rocks, hauled by cattle from the Breuil-Chenue forest, which was away from the lake. To get the granite, they pushed north to the heights of the Ponceaux, and south to those of the Outre-Cure. The dam was dedicated on 13 May 1858 by the future Bishop of Troyes, Pierre-Louis-Marie Cortet.
Several buildings were submerged, notably windmills that can still be seen every decade or so, when the reservoir is emptied. In 1861, the new construction was required to repair water damage. Around 1920, the lake lost its main function since timber was no longer rafted to Paris due to wood's replacement by coal as a fuel source. The lake was then abandoned for several decades.
Later years
The dam became a listed site in 1937. The lake then became popular leisure destination. In 1956 the first camping site opened for business, while the hotels increased in number.