Grand Rocher du Parc Zoologique de Paris

The Grand Rocher rises sixty-five meters above the Vincennes woods, a jagged, concrete mountain built to mimic the Matterhorn. When it opened in nineteen thirty-four, it provided a dramatic, artificial landscape for mountain goats and sheep to roam while visitors watched from below. Designers used wire mesh and sprayed cement to shape the peak, creating a hollow structure that eventually housed water reservoirs. It remained a shuttered, rusted relic for decades until a massive restoration project finished in twenty fourteen.