Grotte de Lascaux
MonumentHidden Treasure
Grotte de Lascaux, located in Montignac (Dordogne), is a historic monument. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Location
- Montignac, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 45.0522, 1.1703
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00082696
Masterpiece of prehistoric humanity, Lascaux reveals 600 animal representations dating back 17,000 years, painted with astonishing mastery in the depths of the Dordogne.
History
In the heart of the Vézère valley, in the Périgord Noir, the Lascaux cave is much more than an archaeological site: it's the Sistine Chapel of prehistoric art, an underground sanctuary where men from the Upper Palaeolithic immortalised their world with a virtuosity that still confounds 21st-century scientists. Its limestone walls are home to one of the most spectacular groups of cave paintings ever discovered, a striking testimony to the creative capacity of Homo sapiens at the dawn of human history. What makes Lascaux absolutely unique is the density and exceptional quality of its representations: almost 600 animal figures - aurochs, horses, deer, bison, woolly rhinoceroses - come to life on the vaults and walls in a pictorial ballet of extraordinary vitality. Magdalenian artists made brilliant use of the natural relief of the rock to give volume and movement to their creations, using mineral pigments - ochre, manganese, haematite - with an astonishingly rich palette of colours. The famous Well Scene, with its wounded man facing a disembowelled bison, remains one of the most enigmatic human representations in all of the world's cave art. While it is impossible to enter the original cave, which has been closed to the public since 1963 to preserve its fragile treasures, today's visitors can discover Lascaux through its extraordinarily faithful facsimiles. Lascaux IV, which opened in Montignac-Lascaux in 2016, offers a totally immersive experience thanks to the most advanced reproduction technologies, recreating every gallery, every colour and every detail of the original cave with pinpoint accuracy. It's an experience that will captivate history buffs and novices alike. The natural setting amplifies the sense of exception: Montignac and its Vézère valley, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 as part of a group of 147 prehistoric sites, is one of the best-preserved cradles of humanity in Europe. To visit Lascaux is to embark on a pilgrimage to the very sources of human expression.
Architecture
The Lascaux cave is a natural karstic network carved out of the Périgord limestone, made up of a succession of galleries and rooms of varying morphologies. The whole complex is around 250 metres long, from the entrance to the final galleries, with vault heights of up to six metres in the widest areas. The general layout is roughly axial with lateral branches: the Hall of the Bulls (or Rotunda), the largest and most spectacular, is followed by the Axial, the Axial Diverticulum, the Passage, the Nave, the Apse and the Feline Diverticulum. The Bajocian limestone that makes up the rock is of a natural calcitic whiteness that has played a fundamental role in preserving the paintings and making them more luminous. Its smooth, even surface provided prehistoric artists with a medium of exceptional quality, comparable to a prepared plaster. With remarkable formal intelligence, the artists exploited the natural accidents of the wall - bulges, hollows, cracks - to accentuate the volume and movement of their animal representations. The pigments used, based on iron oxides (yellow and red ochres), manganese dioxide (blacks and purples) and calcite (whites), were applied by blowing, dabbing and direct drawing, sometimes combining several techniques on the same figure, demonstrating a technical mastery that was as sophisticated as it was surprising for the period.
Related Figures
Marcel Ravidat — co-découvreur de la grotte le 12 septembre 1940, à 18 ansJacques Marsal — co-découvreur et gardien dévoué de la grotte pendant des décenniesGeorges Agnel — co-découvreur de la grotte en 1940Simon Coencas — co-découvreur de la grotte en 1940Abbé Henri Breuil — préhistorien de renommée mondiale, premier scientifique à étudier et authentifier les peinturesAndré Malraux — ministre de la Culture ayant ordonné la fermeture de la grotte au public en 1963 pour la sauvegarderLéon Laval — instituteur de Montignac, premier adulte alerté par les jeunes découvreurs
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Grotte de Lascaux located?
Grotte de Lascaux is located in Montignac, Dordogne department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France.
Is Grotte de Lascaux open to visitors?
Grotte de Lascaux is currently closed to visitors.