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Origin and history

La Croix du Buffre is a monumental cross located in the hamlet of Buffre, on the town of Hures-la-Parade, in the department of Lozère. Dating from the 12th century, it is erected on an ancient pilgrimage path linking Sainte-Enimie to Meyrueis, then to Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. Its base has the engraved date of 1151 or 1161, depending on the sources, making it the oldest road cross of Lozère. It has been listed as historical monuments since May 30, 1984.

The monument consists of a staircase of two circular steps supporting a rectangular limestone slab. The base, cylindrical at the base, is in a cone trunk upwards and is decorated in relief. One side represents a protruding human head serving as a benefactor, while the other faces show characters holding symbolic objects, perhaps St Peter and St Paul. The cross itself, of rectangular section, ends with a hemispherical head surmounted by the date of 1161.

According to local tradition, passers-by soaked a bouquet of boxes in the bentier to bless herds or travelers, thus invoking divine protection from the dangers of the roads. The cross is located on the edge of the ferrat camin, a drail (transhumance path) taken by the shepherds, and surrounded by dry stone walls. Its state of conservation and its inscription in historical monuments make it a rare testimony of medieval religious art in Gevaudan.

Sources also mention a date engraved today, as well as a symbolic representation related to the Christian faith and local practices. The cross of the Buffre thus illustrates the role of the road crosses in the religious and pastoral life of the Middle Ages, marking both a place of prayer and a landmark for travellers and shepherds crossing the causses.

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