RENAISSANCE DU CHASTELAS
DE GROSPIERRES

Grospierres church

Chastelas site

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Association Loi 1901
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The objective of the Association is to strengthen and secure the ruins of the old village so as to preserve the site as a place of pilgrimage, escape and reminiscence and to attract interested young volunteers to the site by means of summer work camps to help with this.

Grospierres is a commune in the south of the Ardèche (France) situated in the valley of the Chassezac River. Derived from the Latin “gurges petra”, Grospierres means “hole in stone”. It presumably describes the “vauclusian-style” source of the “Font-Vive” spring which surfaces at the foot of the rock around which the remains of the old village of Chastelas are found. Around the tenth century, a castle and a church were built there overlooking the fertile plain of the Chassezac towards the west.

Built around this rocky outcrop of 276 metres high, the village of Chastelas – long since in ruins – surrounded the castle and the church. From the start of the nineteenth century, the inhabitants of Chastelas preferred to settle and make their homes in the plain, thereby taking advantage of the conveniences of water and, later on, of the local rail network.  Nobody lives there since 1930, but at that time the village was still well preserved as shown on the photographes taken around 1920.

From the promontory at Chastelas one can enjoy the magnificent panorama across the valley of the Chassezac towards the Cévennes Mountains and Mount Lozère. At its base is the “Font-Vive”, the turquoise waters of which, collected from the limestone plateau, miraculously burst to the surface in a single place, the Vauclusian label being derived from the renowned “Fontaine de Vaucluse”  in the south of France. Thanks to the Association of Speleology of Grospierres,  RESSAC, this natural hiking place has recovered much of its magic as much appreciated by the townspeople as by it visitors from further afield.
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Volunteers  of the 2009 work camp
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Photographes
of the 2009 summer work camp HERE
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from August 8th till August 22nd, 2009
in partnership with REMPART