Photo : JGS25 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Le cirque de Consolation
The Cirque de Consolation is a reculée of the Jura massif, in the Doubs, within the Doubs Horloger Regional Nature Park. It includes two valleys: the branch of the Dessoubre, which ends at a perennial spring, and the branch of the Lançot, longer and deeper, closed by cliffs of 350 m. After heavy rain or snowmelt, a temporary 47 m waterfall gushes from a cave.
An oratory dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation was established in 1432-1433. Minim monks founded a monastery there in 1670, completed in 1673. Turned into a junior seminary in 1833, it closed definitively in 1978, and the Fondation du Val de Consolation now manages the site.
The place has been a protected site since 1943, over about 150 hectares. You can see chamois, peregrine falcons and black woodpeckers, and there is an arboretum. More than 110,000 visitors go there every year.
