Cave of Niaux

Niaux, France

The Cave of Niaux contains many prehistoric paintings of superior quality from the Magdalenian period. It is one of the most famous decorated prehistoric caves in Europe still open to the public. The paintings had been emerging on the cave walls during a long period between 11500 and 10500 years BC. From the very beginning of the seventeenth century the cave was of great interest for tourists, who left numerous traces on its walls.

Though its vast opening (55 metres high) which opens at an altitude of 678 metres, the Niaux cave extends for more than 2 kilometres. The guided tour of the Salon Noir, 800 metres from the entrance, will reveal to you more than 70 exceptional prehistoric paintings.

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Address

Les Baousses, Niaux, France
See all sites in Niaux

Details

Founded: 11500 BC
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in France
Historical period: Prehistoric Age (France)

More Information

www.bradshawfoundation.com
www.grottes-en-france.com

Rating

4.7/5 (based on Google user reviews)

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User Reviews

Ana Lages (16 months ago)
Amazing experience! Truly! Highly recommended to all that loves history and to discover places like this, where men left his mark for thousands and thousands of years! The drawings are simple Amazing...
Andy Kegel (2 years ago)
incredible. The tour is well organized - bring good shoes and prepare to walk on slippery rock. 10000, 20000, perhaps even 30000 years ago, people walked a kilometer into a dark cave to paint on the walls using light from lamps burning animal fat. And these aren't just my type of scribbles, but actual genius art. You must go to find out how capable our ancestors were. This is one of the few places where you can see the actual art and not just reproductions.
Lorraine Tilbury (2 years ago)
Amazing. One of the last remaining caves where you're able to visit the ORIGINAL Neolithic paintings, NOT a copy. Continuous measurement of carbon dioxide emissions & the limiting of human presence to 45 mn max guarantees the preservation of this precious relic.
Peter Vaughan (2 years ago)
This would not normally be my kind of thing, but it was incredible. The cave hasn't been overly disturbed since it was painted around 13,000 - 15,000 years ago! It's not been sanitised, it's only been made safe for us to visit (be ready for some tight passages and steep steps) and to keep the paintings safe from us. I would really highly recommend it.
Chiara Benini (2 years ago)
The most beautiful cave I've p ever seen, dripping with an atmosphere of misteriousness and resembling a place out of a fantasy book. For those scared of the dark and of tight places, prepare yourself for a thrilling adventure.
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The original Cochem Castle, perched prominently on a hill above the Moselle River, served to collect tolls from passing ships. Modern research dates its origins to around 1100. Before its destruction by the French in 1689, the castle had a long and fascinating history. It changed hands numerous times and, like most castles, also changed its form over the centuries.

In 1151 King Konrad III ended a dispute over who should inherit Cochem Castle by laying siege to it and taking possession of it himself. That same year it became an official Imperial Castle (Reichsburg) subject to imperial authority. In 1282 it was Habsburg King Rudolf’s turn, when he conquered the Reichsburg Cochem and took it over. But just 12 years later, in 1294, the newest owner, King Adolf of Nassau pawned the castle, the town of Cochem and the surrounding region in order to finance his coronation. Adolf’s successor, Albrecht I, was unable to redeem the pledge and was forced to grant the castle to the archbishop in nearby Trier and the Electorate of Trier, which then administered the Reichsburg continuously, except for a brief interruption when Trier’s Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg had to pawn the castle to a countess. But he got it back a year later.

The Electorate of Trier and its nobility became wealthy and powerful in large part due to the income from Cochem Castle and the rights to shipping tolls on the Moselle. Not until 1419 did the castle and its tolls come under the administration of civil bailiffs (Amtsmänner). While under the control of the bishops and electors in Trier from the 14th to the 16th century, the castle was expanded several times.

In 1688 the French invaded the Rhine and Moselle regions of the Palatinate, which included Cochem and its castle. French troops conquered the Reichsburg and then laid waste not only to the castle but also to Cochem and most of the other surrounding towns in a scorched-earth campaign. Between that time and the Congress of Vienna, the Palatinate and Cochem went back and forth between France and Prussia. In 1815 the western Palatinate and Cochem finally became part of Prussia once and for all.

Louis Jacques Ravené (1823-1879) did not live to see the completion of his renovated castle, but it was completed by his son Louis Auguste Ravené (1866-1944). Louis Auguste was only two years old when construction work at the old ruins above Cochem began in 1868, but most of the new castle took shape from 1874 to 1877, based on designs by Berlin architects. After the death of his father in 1879, Louis Auguste supervised the final stages of construction, mostly involving work on the castle’s interior. The castle was finally completed in 1890. Louis Auguste, like his father, a lover of art, filled the castle with an extensive art collection, most of which was lost during the Second World War.

In 1942, during the Nazi years, Ravené was forced to sell the family castle to the Prussian Ministry of Justice, which turned it into a law school run by the Nazi government. Following the end of the war, the castle became the property of the new state of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate). In 1978 the city of Cochem bought the castle for 664,000 marks.

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