Stone roadside crosses, Mâconnais-style houses and a large wine press give Saint-Gengoux-De-Scissé a distinctive cultural character. The village is also home to the church of Saint-Gengoux, with Romanesque features, a long history of winegrowing and landscape connections to the Verzée Valley. When planning your trip, you can explore these themes as distinct highlights: architecture and church history sit alongside local winegrowing, while viewpoints and historic sites offer another perspective on the community.
Stone houses and roadside crosses
The typical Mâconnais-style houses are built of white limestone and have two storeys. Above them are grain lofts with small square windows that were used to ventilate the grain. Red-tiled awnings are supported by two or three wooden posts. The buildings reveal not only their materials and forms, but also details such as how the lofts were ventilated and how the awnings were constructed.
White-stone roadside crosses stand both in the village and in the hamlets of Bonzon, Poil-Rouge and Bassy. They are almost identical and predominantly Neo-Gothic in style. The residents erected them in 1858. Their similarity makes the crosses a recurring design feature, while their distribution extends across several named parts of the community.
Wine-growing history and a large press
In the village centre, a historic “pressoir à grand point” can be seen near the Foyer Rural and the “Le Vieux Logis” wine cellar. The press is eight metres long, four metres high and weighs almost ten tonnes. It was modified in 1869, and some of its parts are probably several centuries old. The object thus brings together a dated modification and the possibly much earlier history of some of its components.
The cooperative wine cellar is also part of the area’s wine-growing history: it was the first to be established in the Mâconnais, in 1925. The Domaine de L’Aubraine comprises five hectares of vineyards and around ten hectares of pasture; land use may change over time. The domaine offers groups a range of activities involving vineyards and horses. As arrangements may need to be made in advance and activities can change, it is advisable to ask about the conditions beforehand.
Church and historical traces
The church of Saint-Gengoux has been documented since the 9th century. Its choir, bell tower and apse date from the Romanesque period. One of its chapels also contains an 18th-century altarpiece: twisted columns frame a painting of Saint Gengoux as a Roman soldier, holding a palm and with a helmet set aside. The architectural features and altarpiece point to different periods in art and building history, but the church’s long documented history should not be taken to mean that every individual element is equally old.
The Tour de Bassy was once an estate belonging to Cluny Abbey and was severely damaged in July 1789. Another historical trace is the former Notre-Dame Chapel in the hamlet of Bonzon. It is now privately owned; only the choir remains. Both examples offer insight into the history of local buildings, but represent different strands of that history: the former connection to Cluny and the damage in 1789 on the one hand, and the surviving part of a chapel on the other.
Ridge and the Verzée Valley
The Grotte de l’Été is an underground site beneath the ridge between the hamlet of La Verzée and the village centre of Saint-Gengoux-De-Scissé. From the hilltop, one of the finest views in the Mâconnais opens over the Verzée Valley. These landscape landmarks complement the village’s architectural and historical features: the viewpoint looks out over the valley, while the houses, church and press provide tangible evidence of local history.
Discover more destinations: Le Creusot, Chapaize, Vitry-sur-Loire, Saint-Marcel, Épinac, Fleury-La-Montagne, Paris-L'hôpital, Céron.
For the wider travel overview: Saône-Et-Loire.
