Discover Ainvelle

Ainvelle brings together the industrial history of a village, rural architecture and its connection to the Bassigny Bird Protection Area, Lorraine section. If you are looking for a hotel, you can first consider whether historic technology, the village’s architectural styles or its landscape setting will be the deciding factor for your trip.

Oil Mill and Archaeology

The oil mill in Ainvelle had a cast-iron roller crusher, two millstones, a boiler for heating the oil cakes and a hand-operated winch press. Together, this equipment represents different stages of oil processing: crushing, heating and pressing. This makes it possible to understand the mill not only through its history but also through its technical equipment.

The oil mill was still operating in 1917. It then ceased activity, resumed from 1943 to 1950, and was subsequently closed for good. Its history therefore includes an interruption and a limited period of renewed operation.

Ainvelle also has a specific archaeological landmark: Gallo-Roman remains are located at La Roye Demange. La Roye Demange focuses on archaeology in the cantons of Lamarche and Monthureux. Its activities include guided visits. If a guided tour is important to your trip, check in advance whether a suitable date is available.

Rural Architectural History and the Church

Ainvelle’s farmhouses and workers’ houses include buildings dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Individual architectural elements from the 16th century have been reused or preserved in their original locations. It is therefore worth distinguishing between the age of a building and the age of an individual structural element: they do not necessarily belong to the same phase of construction.

The village’s rural buildings also include farmhouses with two living areas. One farmhouse in Ainvelle was rebuilt in the first half of the 19th century, probably around 1840. These details add two distinct perspectives to the general construction dates: the division of living areas and the history of a rebuilding.

Sculpted ornamentation on window brackets and lintels was supplied by a 19th-century sculptor’s workshop. Along with the reused older elements, it broadens the view of the area’s architectural history to include the design of structural elements.

The Église Saint-Pierre aux Liens is a parish church in Ainvelle. Historically, the church of Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens belonged to the Diocese of Besançon and the Deanery of Faverney. This historical affiliation adds the names of two ecclesiastical bodies to the church’s local parish role.

Bird Protection Area and Landscape

Ainvelle is one of the municipalities in the Bassigny Bird Protection Area, Lorraine section; the designation is dated 26 April 2006. As of December 2017, the proposed boundary in Ainvelle includes additional areas that form part of the villages’ orchard belt. The municipality’s inclusion in the Bird Protection Area should be distinguished from these additional areas included in the proposal.

Ainvelle thus brings together several distinct local features: the oil mill’s technical history, rural buildings with a layered chronology, and the landscape designation of the Bird Protection Area.

Discover more destinations: Brouvelieures, Epinal, Lironcourt, Wisembach, Champdray, Charmes, Le Syndicat, Hadol

View the broader travel guide: Vosges.