Cultural heritage in Ardèche

Men and stones.

Through a rock painting, a Renaissance façade, a narrow alley, a painted retable, thirty five thousand years of culture recount the major chapters in the history of the Ardèche.

35,000 years ago, prehistoric man was already drawing the great moments of his existence. This inestimable witness of his passage through our celebrated gorges forms the mysterious framework of a history frozen in the rock that we have not ceased deciphering.

Then, came the Romans and their know-how.  Numerous traces of this period of colonisation have remained in Ardèche. The most important is the antique city of Alba-la-Romaine (), its 30 hectares of gallo-roman remains dating from the 4th century BC and its 3,000 seat theatre.

A multitude of ancient villages still resonate with their past through the proudly perched strong castles or their secret churches.

You will measure the strength of character of their inhabitants who have had to tame the restricted space of this harsh and rocky country.

With more than 80 classified and protected monuments dotted across the area, the Vivarais Méridional is now designated as a “Pays d’Art et d’Histoire”.

Ardèche is also the second French county for its number of dolmens: almost 800, mainly in Southern Ardèche.

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• The Chauvet Cave
• Romanesque art
• Protestantism cultural heritage
• Silkworm breeding