Le Cheslé

En un regard

Le château en bref

Le Cheslé is a protohistoric promontory fort (éperon barré) of the Early Iron Age, perched some 80 to 90 metres above a meander of the Ourthe, between Bérismenil, Maboge and Nisramont, in the municipality of La Roche-en-Ardenne. Across roughly thirteen hectares, two ramparts totalling more than 1,750 metres in length enclose the plateau, while a barrier wall about six metres high closes off the neck of the loop, the most vulnerable point facing the plateau. Sources attribute the occupation and fortification of the site to the 8th–5th centuries BC, a radiocarbon date suggesting 519 BC; the study of the rampart has distinguished several successive phases of construction. The site appears on the Ferraris map of 1777 and was recognised in 1867; excavations have taken place there since 1905, systematically from 1960 onwards, and a reconstruction of the rampart's structure was carried out in 1980. Listed as part of the Patrimoine majeur de Wallonie, the Cheslé can be visited freely and at no cost, on foot only, via steep paths starting from Bérismenil or Maboge.