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Key figures

Origin and history

The Font-de-Gaume cave, located in the valley of the Vézère in the Dordogne, is one of the last major adorned caves in France still open to the public. Its walls are home to more than 200 magdalenian engravings and paintings, including polychrome representations of animals (aurochs, bisons, mammoths, horses) and geometric signs. Classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, it is distinguished by its stable state of conservation, although less preserved than that of Lascaux or Altamira.

The cave was discovered on 12 September 1901 by Denis Peyrony, Louis Capitan and Henri Breuil, only four days after that of the Combarelles. Already known to the locals, it even served as a playground for children, which explains the presence of graffiti on some works. As early as 1902, it was classified as a historical monument, and excavations revealed lithic remains attributed mainly to the Châtelperronien and the Aurignacian, more rarely to the Moustarian or Magdalenian.

Dipped in a limestone massif of the upper Cretaceous, the cave extends over 125 meters long, with a width of two to three meters and a height of up to eight meters. The first figures appear after a narrowness called the Rubicon, which limited the air circulation and favored the partial preservation of the works. Black and red pigments, applied by buffering or blowing, form scenes like that of two reindeer faced, interpreted as a possible sexual parade.

Managed by the National Monuments Centre, the cave now hosts 78 visitors a day (compared to 2,000 previously), a threshold calculated to preserve its thermal balance. The visits, organized by groups of thirteen people, allow to admire a parietal art comparable to that of Arcy-sur-Cure or Lascaux, while highlighting the challenges of its conservation in the face of erosion and climatic variations.

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