Caves du Palais Saint Firmin, Medieval underground cellars in Gordes, France
The Caves du Palais Saint Firmin is a complex of underground chambers extending across three levels beneath village houses, with passages carved directly from limestone bedrock. The network connects different functional areas that once served both production and storage purposes.
These underground chambers originated in the Middle Ages as workshops for oil production and as storage spaces beneath the palace. The rooms evolved over centuries as the village adapted them to changing needs and purposes.
The site displays tools and objects discovered during restoration work that show how people lived and worked in medieval Gordes. These finds reveal details about the crafts and daily routines that took place beneath the village houses.
The caves can be explored only with a guide, starting with a film presentation in an old chapel space. The tour then moves through the different underground levels to show the layout and function of the former mill system.
The excavation and restoration of these caves took more than four decades to complete and revealed a sophisticated network for oil storage and production hidden beneath the village. The extensive project demonstrates how medieval craftsmen engineered intricate underground systems into the bedrock.
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