Grotte de Trabuc

Mialet

Opening into the Cévennes hills above the Mialet valley, the Grotte de Trabuc runs to more than 10 km of known galleries with a total elevation change of 215 m. Its name comes from the trabuc, the blunderbuss in Cévenol Occitan, the weapon of choice of the Camisards: the Protestant insurgents of the Camisard War took refuge here in the early 18th century, and the site later served as a hideout for the bandits known as trabucaires in the 19th century. Scientific exploration began in 1823 with Nicod and Gallière; in 1889 entomologists described a new beetle species there, and in 1945 Georges Vaucher and his sons cleared the passage to the 'Nouveau Trabuc'. The cave owes its fame to the Cent Mille Soldats, the 'Hundred Thousand Soldiers': thousands of tiny concretions standing in tight ranks, likened to a terracotta army, whose formation remains unexplained since no water drips from the ceiling at this spot. Several hypotheses have been put forward, including a microbial origin, none proven to date; guides present the phenomenon as a geological puzzle, which it still is. The route also leads to the Lac de Minuit, an underground pool of absolute black, and to large calcite draperies and cascades. Trabuc remains one of the rare French sites where the story of a religious revolt and a mineralogical mystery can be read in the same gallery.

Wikipédia - Grotte de Trabuc ↗

Getting there : 2316 Route des Grottes (D50), 30140 Mialet, about ten minutes from Anduze towards Saint-Jean-du-Gard; parking on site. Guided or audio-guided tour of about 1 hour, with 200 steps down and then back up (rest areas provided); paid site, open March to November depending on the calendar. Special tours by acetylene lamp or candlelight depending on the season.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound