Vulcania, the "European Park of Volcanism", is an educational French

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

and

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

with a

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

theme. Situated in Saint-Ours-les-Roches,

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; or ) is a cultural region in central France. As of 2016 Auvergne is no longer an administrative division of France. It is generally regarded as conterminous with the land area of the historical Province of Auvergne, which was dis ...

, 15 km north-west of

Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, , ; or simply ; ) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population of 147,284 (2020). Its metropolitan area () had 504,157 inhabitants at the 2018 ...

, it was officially inaugurated in 2002.

History

The project was the brainchild of French

volcanologists A volcanologist, or volcano scientist, is a geologist who focuses on understanding the formation and eruptive activity of volcanoes. Volcanologists frequently visit volcanoes, sometimes active ones, to observe and monitor volcanic eruptions, col ...

Katia and Maurice Krafft Catherine Joséphine "Katia" Krafft (née Conrad; 17 April 1942 – 3 June 1991) and her husband, Maurice Paul Krafft (25 March 1946 – 3 June 1991) were French volcanologists and filmmakers who died in a pyroclastic flow on Mount Unzen, Nag ...

, who died at

Mount Unzen is an active volcanic group of several overlapping stratovolcanoes, near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island. In 1792, the collapse of one of its several lava domes triggered a megatsuna ...

in 1991. The Krafft couple and their work had a great impact on the former

President of France The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is the supreme magistracy of the country, the po ...

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, ; ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as simply Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. After serving as Ministry of the Economy ...

, who pushed for the construction of the park while he was President of the Regional Council of

Criticism

The project has faced criticism from its very inception. The strong involvement of the former president added a political dimension to the economic, technical and environmental issues. From an environmental perspective the construction of Vulcania in the heart of the Chaîne des Puys met strong opposition from conservationists. Contrary to this argument, the land had hydrocarbon deposits as the site was formerly owned by the military, therefore the project rehabilitated the land. Another strong criticism emerged due to the financial losses faced from the over-estimated number of visitors. In 2004 the park was operating with a deficit of €1.707 million.

Design

The architect behind the design of the park was

Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment which has produced consisten ...

-winning, Austrian Hans Hollein. Three-quarters of the foundations are sunk underground, which aided in the rehabilitation of the land. Visitors approach a 'metaphorical Volcano' by descending down a ramp towards a cone-shaped structure clad in dark stone and lined on the inside with a gold metal. The design incorporates research and conference facilities, large

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

theaters,

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

s to highlight the positive effects of volcanism — fertility — and a restaurant with views out to the whole nature park. The site is secluded and is also utilised for recreation and hiking.Vulcania on Architectuul
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Attractions

One of the attractions at Vulcania is the

4-D film 4D or 4-D primarily refers to: * 4-dimensional spacetime: three-dimensional space of length, width, and height, plus time * Four-dimensional space It may also refer to: Computers and photography * 4D (software), a complete programming environme ...

''The Awakening of the Auvergne Giants''. In 2008 Vulcania opened four new attractions, including the Volcanbul, a

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

-driven robot that gives tours of the area around Vulcania. To quote from the Vulcania Web site "VolcanBul Eco-friendly and innovating the VolcanBul is an electric vehicle guided by GPS." It was specifically implemented to improve the rate of revisits and encourage visitors to spend an entire day exploring the different areas, rather than half-day as is usually the case for museums.

In literature and film

Vulcan is the mythical smithy of the

Roman gods The Roman deities most widely known today are those the Romans identified with Greek counterparts, integrating Greek myths, iconography, and sometimes religious practices into Roman culture, including Latin literature, Roman art, and relig ...

, described in

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

's ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'' 8:425. It is also the secret base of Captain Nemo in Walt Disney's film version of

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's 1870 novel ''

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' () is a science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may inclu ...

'', but it is not mentioned in the original novel.

References

External links

Vulcania home page
{{Coord, 45.813449, 2.940501, type:landmark, display=title Volcanology Amusement parks in France Buildings and structures in Puy-de-Dôme Tourist attractions in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes by department Tourist attractions in Puy-de-Dôme 2002 establishments in France Amusement parks opened in 2002 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing