The MiMonVE project has enriched and energized this educational path with a series of fun and interactive activities. These new activities, to be discovered alone, with friends, or with family, focus on the human aspect of mining and the various professions involved.
Starting this summer, experience the Izi.Travel app, which immerses the visitor, through stories to listen to, texts to read, and archive images to view, in the history of the men who sculpted the rock on the steep slopes of Mont Chemin.
Soon, you will also be able to discover:
- A reception area equipped with a small museography to introduce visitors to the mining world of Mont Chemin and raise awareness of the site’s natural riches.
- An educational and sports trail that guides children in discovering the professions of miners.
- An experimental garden, with the reproduction of a bloomery, explains how iron was extracted from the rock.
- An immersive scenography of the gallery, known as the Hubacher mine, where visitors can step into the shoes of a World War II miner and understand his daily life.
These installations will also be accessible to visually impaired people.
The Swiss partners of the MiMonVe project are the Swiss Confederation, the State of Valais, and the Municipality of Val de Bagnes.
Mount Chemin and Its Mines
Mount Chemin overlooks Martigny with the subtlety of a hill not mentioned in topographical maps. Its east-west position, parallel to the Rhone Valley, makes it an exceptional feature in the geography of Valais with its classic fishbone shape. The climate, Mediterranean on the southern slope and continental on the northern one, makes Mount Chemin a diverse and fascinating showcase of vegetation and flora, far from tourist resorts.
Located at the northern end of the Mont Blanc massif, Mount Chemin is made up of crystalline rocks and marine sediments. Its subsoil contains about 150 minerals, a remarkable geological wealth. Iron, lead, and silver have been intensively extracted since the Middle Ages, followed by fluorite in the 20th century, a historically significant activity whose traces can be discovered by following the “Sentier des Mines” through a landscape of mid-mountain meadows and wooded pastures.
