Discover Gerland: Church, Ponds and Village History

Gerland combines striking buildings with a landscape of woodland edges, ponds and meadows. At its centre stands the Église Saint-Pierre; on the edge of the Cîteaux forest massif are three ponds of ecological value. The hamlet of Balon also has traces of its own history. These features offer several distinct focal points when choosing where to stay: church art and architectural history, nature and the landscape, or the history of the hamlet.

Church and historic buildings

The Église Saint-Pierre is in the centre of Gerland on the RD 35 and has been listed as a Monument historique since 1925. The southern arm of the transept contains a mural depicting Saint John the Baptist and Saint Thomas Becket. A transept is the transverse part of a church; the southern arm identifies where the artwork is located within the building. The church’s protected status and mural make it a specific point of interest for anyone interested in churches and religious art.

North of the village, also on the RD 35, stands the rectangular washhouse. It was built in the 19th century, well outside the village. The building is open on its eastern side and has a rectangular stone basin; a fireplace and stone shelves complete its features. Unlike the church, it is a different type of building: the open side, basin and stone features shape its historic character. The two buildings therefore offer distinct points of interest, from the mural at Saint-Pierre to the washhouse’s characteristic details.

Ponds and landscape

On the edge of the Cîteaux forest massif in Gerland lie the Étang Creuzille, the Étang Neuf and the Étang de la Folie. All three ponds are considered ecologically valuable. They also date from different periods: Creuzille and de la Folie are medieval, while the Étang Neuf was created in the 19th century. Thus, two medieval ponds and a more recent body of water meet at the same woodland edge. Gerland is also part of the Natura 2000 site “Forêt de Citeaux et environs”; the kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) is listed there as a bird species found in the area. This gives visitors a clear focus on nature and the landscape alongside the area’s architectural history.

The landscape also offers different perspectives and settlement settings. From the south-east of the commune, the church stands out; otherwise, the village is barely visible from there. Hedged meadows surround the hamlet of Balon, with the Fossé Carreau stream flowing through them. This stream-and-meadow landscape differs from the ponds at the woodland edge and gives Balon its own distinctive character.

Traces of history in Gerland and Balon

The area’s history extends beyond the church and washhouse. Remains of the moat of Gerland’s former castle survive, crossed by a solid bridge. Merovingian graves containing about twenty skeletons have been discovered in Balon. A former Roman road also passed through the hamlet. These examples represent different historical traces: surviving castle moats, an archaeological discovery and a road dating from Roman times. Together with the church and washhouse, they offer several ways to explore Gerland’s history without reducing these individual features to a single theme.

When looking for a holiday rental in Gerland, you can start by deciding which aspect of a holiday interests you most: the church and its mural, the washhouse’s architectural history, historical traces in Gerland and Balon, or the ponds and meadows. This lets you choose accommodation to suit the kind of stay you have in mind. Those who want to focus on cultural history will find different points of interest from those primarily interested in the landscape and nature.

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For the broader travel overview: Cote-Dor.