Geological origins
The Wine Museum is housed in what used to be crude limestone quarries that were mined between the 13th and the 18th centuries to provide the dressed stoneused to build Paris. This limestone is a characteristic feature of a geological age universally known as ‘Lutécien' (from Lutece, the former name given to Paris) and is situated here,37.80 metres above sea-level.The museum galleries were dug out in the lower part of this geological layer by way of a "turning pillar" technique. The pillars are evenly spaced to support the quarry roof. Stone walls were built as reinforcement for these galleries,particularly in the 19th century.The limestone was formed by the accumulation of seashells at the bottom of the warm sea that covered the area 45 million years ago. Fossils of these animals may still be seen in some places (bivalve molluscs or stretched shells).The well at the Museum entrance is evidence of the existence of occasionally emerging groundwater. Several mineral water springs were actually discovered in the Passy area between the middle of the 17th century and 1754 (hence thename "Waters Road", "la rue des Eaux"). Deemed ferruginous and laxative, Passy spring water was exploited commercially until the Second Empire, though it was mainly in the 18th century that it became fashionable, attracting watertakers from the Parisian ‘upper classes', writers and artists.
