Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert
Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert
07/05/2023
My cousin Denis and his daughter Clemence decided to take me on a vist to Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. It was a beautiful place up from a river on which we plan to kayak on next week.
Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert in Languedocien is a small medieval town that is one of the most beautiful medieval villages in France and is a commune located in the north of the department of Hérault in Occitanie, crossed by the path of Arles, one of the routes to Compostela.
Gellone Abbey, jewel of Languedoc Romanesque art, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It houses the relics of Saint-Guilhem and the True Cross! The Abbey Museum shows the turbulent history of Gellone and its cloister. The Abbey Museum is free to visit. The Lorimy house, which gives you the most remarkable Romanesque facade of the village, along with the front of the Saint-Laurent church, and the prison tower or the Château du Géant.
Visit the Musée du Village d’Antan and discover the turbulent history of the Abbaye de Gellone!
Exposed to a Mediterranean climate, it is drained by the Herault, the Verdus, the Combe du Bouys stream, the Pontel stream and by various other small streams. The town has a remarkable natural heritage: two Natura 2000 sites (the “Gorges de l’Herault” and the "Hautes garrigues du Montpelliérais"), a protected area (the "Saint-Guillhem-le-Désert") and five natural areas of ecological, faunal and floristic interest.
Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert is a rural commune with a population of 243 in 2020, after having experienced a population peak of 962 inhabitants in 1806. It is part of the Montpellier attraction area. Its inhabitants are called Saute-Rocs or Saute-Rochers.
Being part of the Great Site of France of the Gorges de l’Herault, it is included in the classification of the association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France.
