The aim of this article is to sketch out how - in rhetoric and reality - a "wild" site is transformed into a sacred place. First, we shall present the sources that tell of the birth of Conques in the High Middle Ages, to show how they fit into a pan-European literary panorama. Secondly, we'll look at the "spiritual" nature of the Conques landscape, as reconstructed in the Liber miraculorum sanctae Fidis5. Finally, the last point will address the construction of a sustainable ecosystem, and how this very system can be altered by human greed.