Saint-Véran, village et église de la plus haute commune d'Europe

Saint-Véran

At an altitude of 2,042 m, Saint-Véran is the highest commune in western Europe — with a school, a town hall and a church — and the third-highest village in Europe after Trepalle (Italy) and Juf (Switzerland). People settled here around 2500 BC, drawn by a copper mine worked in the Bronze Age on a remarkable scale, around seven tonnes of copper a year; the timbers of the "galerie des Anciens" have been dated to about 2300-1750 BC. The village owes its name to Saint Véran, Bishop of Cavaillon in the 6th century: legend has it that he wounded the dragon that was ravaging the Cavaillon region and ordered it to withdraw into the Alps; the drops of blood that fell along the way are said to explain the villages named Saint-Vérand. The parish church, attested from the 13th century, was rebuilt in 1689; its porch goes back to the late 15th or early 16th century, the nave vault and the bell tower date from 1835-1838, and a sundial was painted on it around 1970. Two fires, in 1526 and then in 1882 in the hamlet of Le Raux, shaped the village into quarters separated by firebreak spaces.

Getting there : In the Queyras, reached via Guillestre and the gorges of the Guil, then the Aigue Blanche valley; the parish church stands in the heart of the village, at an altitude of 2,040 m.

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

Ambient sound