In fact, the lands of the Marais, and thus their exploitation, were gained from the sea thanks to the intelligence of man, who, through observation and courage, found out how to go about it. Hence the dikes! Hence the House of the Master of the Dikes!
The dikes...
In the seventeenth century, water management began to be organised, and so dikes and passages were established to regulate the height of liquid elements from one place to another.
Very important these dikes!
The proof is a case that made a lot of noise in 1912...
At the time, there was a strong antagonism between the dry marshland, protected by dikes, and the wet marshland dotted with "clods", as the gardens and orchards surrounded by water were called.
And the floods were, that year, particularly strong to the point that, with the spirits getting a little hot, a main dyke was cut off.
In the end, more than 40 people were arrested and tried, and it ended with a general dismissal, hence the song :
"Gentlemen trustees, who put the pot-au-feu
have mercy on these unfortunates
who with their arms make you live.
It's a good thing we found some good living,
that prevented us from being sentenced to hard labour."
Those who had breached the main dyke by 30 metres were those who, a few days before and then a little later, had been working incessantly in the water and mud to create ditches, the "recalous".
An Ecomuseum: The House of the Dam Master
The Poitevin marshland is not there by chance, the random result of natural evolution... not at all! It is rather the result of the intelligent organisation of the dikes, and this is what the visitor will discover in this famous house of the Master of the Dikes.
It is, in fact, an ecomuseum, in which we will start by answering the question of how to perfectly differentiate between wet and dry marshes.
And then we will also discover what a dyke is, how it is built, who and when it is built and what it is used for.
To do this, we will use a variety of media: videos, audios, texts, photos, old objects, interactive modules, before going to visit the habitat, the job and the daily life of the Master of Dikes, a character who is indispensable for water management and the maintenance of the marsh.
House of the Dam Master
7, Rue de la Coupe du Rocher
85450 Chaillé- les-Marais
Tel : 02 51 56 77 30
https://www.maisondumaitrededigues.fr/
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
(free version)
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