Baume Saint-Vérédème

Sanilhac-Sagriès

In a hollow of the Gorges du Gardon, beneath a high cliff, the Baume Saint-Vérédème combines a vast cave carved by the underground river with a tiny chapel pressed against the rock face. The cave, 130 to 150 m long, opens through two orifices and breathes through a natural chimney 12 m high; excavations carried out since the early 20th century have revealed continuous occupation from the Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age, supplemented in 1976 by Bell Beaker sherds. Tradition holds that Vérédème, a hermit of Greek origin who came to Gaul in the late 7th century, withdrew to this baume, where Saint Gilles is said to have joined him; summoned by the Bishop of Avignon, he left the gorges and died in Avignon around 720. He was credited with healing the lame and ending the region's infertility, and until the mid-20th century the local people climbed up every year on pilgrimage to ask him for fertile rains; his feast day falls on 17 June. The chapel, 4 m by 4.20 m overall, with a single nave and an apse in the form of a half-dome, is presented by local guides as the oldest Christian building in the Bas-Languedoc, dating from the 8th century — a dating that the speleological study by Paul Courbon qualifies, attributing the visible interior architecture to the 17th century, since the first written mention of the site dates back only to 1459. A path cut into the rock and bordered by a parapet links the chapel to the cave through a tunnel cut between 1864 and 1867. Below, two mills survive, that of la Barque Renversée (17th century) and that of la Rasclause (18th century), restored after the 2002 flood.

Syndicat mixte des gorges du Gardon — La Baume Saint-Vérédème ↗

Getting there : Yellow-waymarked walk from the car park by the town hall of Sanilhac-Sagriès (8 km south of Uzès via the D979 then the D212): 6 km there and back, 2 h 30, about 237 m of elevation change, a switchback descent through the garrigue down to the banks of the Gardon. Coordinates taken from a mapping database and therefore accurate only to within a few dozen metres. A torch is essential inside the cave, which is closed from 15 November to 15 March and from 1 May to 15 August to protect the bat colonies.

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

Ambient sound