Sources de la Seine et sanctuaire de Sequana

Source-Seine

In a wooded dell of the Côte-d'Or, nearly 290 km from Paris, a trickle of water comes out of the ground: this is where the Seine begins. Here, pilgrims honoured the goddess Sequana, seen as the human face of the water, whose name gave that of the river. A sanctuary rose on terraces at the foot of a cliff, from the late 1st century BC. There are a small square temple, an oval basin and large porticoes. The sick came to ask for healing and left offerings in stone, in bronze and above all in oak, which the humidity of the ground preserved. They depict adults, swaddled babies, eyes, limbs and even internal organs. The excavations, begun in 1836, brought out about a thousand of them; the Musée archéologique de Dijon keeps them. The wood dates the first visits to the early 1st century AD, and the cult ended at the latest in the 4th century, when pagan cults were banned. In 1864, the City of Paris bought the land and had a park laid out with a grotto, opened in 1867. Since 2026, Inrap has been conducting a new excavation programme there, planned until 2029.

Ville de Paris — Source-Seine : un petit bout de Paris se cache en Côte-d'Or ↗

Getting there: Source-Seine is about 288 km from Paris, on the D 103; the park (1.7 ha) belongs to the City of Paris, which maintains it. The grotto and the park can be visited; the remains of the sanctuary are not laid out for visits and open only during occasional guided tours by booking (for example on 14 June 2026). The park's opening times have not been verified: enquire at the Côte-d'Or tourist office. Coordinates: ‘Sources de la Seine’ park in OpenStreetMap; the exact position of the remains has not been verified.

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

Ambient sound