Trabuc cave

Art exhibition in the cave of Trabuc from the end of April to the beginning of July: For several years, many artists from the Cévennes valleys have been participating in an unmissable event: the creation and integration of works of art in one of the tourist sites. must-sees in the south of France, the Trabuc cave! Indeed, the work and the investment of the many artists participating in this action since 2011, has made this exhibition the major event of the Gardons valley, located between Anduze, Saint-Jean-du-Gard and Générargues. Come and discover the exhibition in this thousand-year-old place which, after July 4, the date of the end of the exhibition, will regain its original appearance.

The Trabuc caves have been known since antiquity; E. Dumas reports discoveries of bones and tools there, which show that they were inhabited by prehistoric men and up to Roman times. These occupations are easily explained.

The entrance is narrow, the presence of a vast room, provided with precious water, combine the defense facilities and the possibilities of hiding places, favorable to the habitat.

Later, the caves served as refuge and powder snow for the Camisards during the Reformation. The king's troops walled up the entrance, like those of many other caves in the region, to eliminate these invulnerable hiding places.

A century later, it is believed that they served as a refuge for trabucaires or other drivers and highwaymen. The name of the cave, must come from this troubled time. The bandits carried the Trabuc, a wide-mouthed pistol or blunderbuss, a dangerous and effective weapon once stuffed with gunpowder and scrap iron.

In local patois they were nicknamed the trabucaïres being the carriers and users of the trabuc. To these first sinister explorers, succeeded the first serious explorers, who entered the caves, speleologists before their time, since the term did not yet exist, to decipher their secrets.

In 1823, Nicod and Gallière penetrated very deeply underground and can thus rightly be listed among the pioneers of speleology. Expeditions of three consecutive days spent underground made them precursors of underground camps. It is Gallière, lost one day, rather one night, without light, who had to spend fifty-two hours before being found chewing his shoelaces and drinking his urine. Practically, from this time, all of what is commonly called the ancient caves, was explored.

Later, in 1889, entomologists, V. Maget and G. Mignaud, discovered a species of niphargus there, baptized Bathyscia Mialetensis in honor of the caves of Mialet.

1899: It was this year that the Trabuc networks were traveled by the first speleologists. Mazauric, collaborator of Martel, describes them in the bulletin of the Speleological Society of France. A plan of the network of galleries and rooms was published in 1920 in the magazine "Spelunca" which showed the importance of the cavity already famous in speleological circles.

Already at that time, tourist visits to the deep part of the caves were made through the natural entrance and the low passage of the "estrangladou" led to the Salle des Vasques, where the guide, who held the torch or the candle, lit bengal fires which he sold to whoever wanted some to grab a few pennies. Vast as the room was, the smoke quickly invaded it and the whole troop, following the guide, groped their way back to the exit.

The visits for July 14th were part of the celebration and in the dark conducive to rowdiness there were already merry troops.

In 1945 began the era of new discoveries, due to the perseverance of MG Vaucher, helped by his sons, Marc and Olivier. Following this work, the development of the known galleries is considerable. More than 7 km of large networks are explored.

Even today, the exploration is not over. There are many promising networks. Research in the ceilings, pursuit of clearings, passage in the siphons of the lower networks!

The mysteries of Trabuc have not all been elucidated yet. As with all great networks, surprises await determined explorers.