The story of the caves

Prehistoric humans chose the caves of this site as a refuge very early on. Excavations carried out as early as 1914 unearthed numerous pottery fragments, worked flints, an enormous pile of ash (4 to 5 meters thick), quantities of animal bones, and a human skull with prominent eye sockets.

These discoveries indicate that this natural shelter has been inhabited since a very early period (10,000 to 12,000 years ago).

Since then, the site has been continuously occupied thanks to its commanding position, offering a strategic vantage point.

As proof, the ridge line surrounding the Cerdon valley was militarily defended from the earliest times. The numerous ruins and a few documents attest to the importance of these defenses, as well as to the many legends that have circulated in the region for centuries.

Popular tradition claimed that all these defenses were connected by underground passages, that a cavernous path led down to the Cerdon valley, and that the war treasure of the Savoyard troops was buried in a mysterious hiding place under one of the defensive towers.

Legends, perhaps! In any case, a shrewd cheesemaker, after purchasing the large natural cavern of Saint-Julien in the 1930s to age his Bleu de Gex cheese, was intrigued by a flock of bats flying high in the vault. After much effort, he discovered an upper gallery, the origin of the underground network known today as the Cerdon Caves.