A secret place full of richness

By reservation only

Single rate €5/person

Tickets are non-changeable and non-refundable.

For greater comfort, we recommend booking 24 hours in advance.

History of caves

Formed 700,000 years ago, at the end of the last local ice age, the caves are the result of a slow calcification of plants and mosses by an immense limestone-rich waterfall that once covered the entire cliff face.
The resulting rock, tuff, is the result of the fossilization of these plants by calcareous water.
Les Grottes, as well as a large part of the fields around today's village, belonged to the Benedictine monks of the Saint-Victor abbey in Marseille. They had a priory near the Saint-Victor chapel, and used the caves, still in their natural state, as a place of refuge from Saracen raids in the 10th century.
In 1566, they exchanged the Grottes with Nicolas d'Albertas, the lord of the valley. The latter undertook work to fortify the site and use its impregnable position against would-be looters, especially as the Wars of Religion were raging at the time. However, there was never a siege, and no one ever lived permanently in the caves.
In 1633, they were ceded to the commune and remain its property. In 1924, they were included in the list of Sites and Natural Monuments of an Artistic Nature, as they combine two criteria: history and geology.