Grottes de Saint-Christophe

Grottes des Echelles

Useful Information

Location:	3796 Route de Chambéry, D1006, 73360 Saint-Christophe. Saint Christophe La Grotte, Chartreuse, north of Grenoble. From Chambéry D1006 south towards Les Échelles (45.4515004, 5.7918729)
Open:	23-MAR to 05-JUL Wed-Fri 13-18, Sat, Sun 11-18. 06-JUL to 01-SEP daily 10:30-19. 02-SEP to NOV Wed-Fri 13-18, Sat, Sun 11-18. Cave Trekking tour: online reservation at Cordeo. Acrospeleo: online reservation at Cordeo. [2024]
Fee:	Adults EUR 9.50, Children (15-17) EUR 8, Children (5-14) EUR 6.50, Children (0-4) free, Students EUR 8, Unemploed EUR 8. Groups (15+): Adults EUR 8, Children (15-17) EUR 6.50, Children (5-14) EUR 5, reservation required. Cave Trekking tour: Adults EUR 45, Children (6-14) EUR 40. Acrospeleo: Adults EUR 52. [2024]
Classification:	Karst Cave
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:	La grotte supérieure: L=1,377 m, T=9 °C. La grotte inférieure: L=215 m, VR=34 m.
Guided tours:	D=90 min, L=1.5 km, VR=100 m. La grotte supérieure: L=200 m. La grotte inférieure: L=215 m. V=17,000/a [2012] Cave Trekking tour: D=2 h, MinAge=6. Acrospeleology: D=2-4 h, Min=4, Max=8, MinAge=12.
Photography:	allowed, no flash
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	R. J. Fone (1903): Les grottes des Echelles, Spélunca bulletin et mémoires de la socièté de spéléologie tome V n°34 (aout 1903), 52 pages, Rennes.
Address:	Historic Site of the Caves of Saint-Christophe, 3796 Route de Chambéry, Route Départementale 10006, 73360 Saint-Christophe-la-Grotte, Tel: +33-479-65-75-08. E-mail: Cordeo, ZAC Bouchayer-Viallet, 22, rue Victor Lastella, 38000 Grenoble, Tel: +33-476-26-53-64, Cell: +33-685-76-48-02. E-mail: Tourist Office, Les Echelles, Tel: +33-479-365624, Fax: +33-479-365312.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

	Roman road built.
1667-1670	the Sardinian Way constructed.
1820	Napoleon ordered the tunnel to be built.
1877	a delegation of the Club Alpin Français de Chambéry recognizes the touristic value of the caves.
1884	la société anonyme des grottes des Echelles created.
1885	caves developed by the Club Alpin Français.
1886	opened to the public.
1898	caves leased by nearby Hotel Durand.
1923	managed by the Syndicat Mixte des Echelles.
1995	show cave closed.
1996	Anim' Grotte association created to manage the caves, the Tunnel Inn and the Sardinian Way.
29-JUN-2002	Grotte du Grand Goulet reopened to the public.
2004	management of caves by the municipality of St Christophe la Grotte.
2022	cave name officially changed to Grottes de Saint-Christophe.

Description

The Grottes de Saint-Christophe was known since the opening of the show cave in the late 19th century under the name Grottes des Échelles (Caves of the Staircase). As the lower cave has a spectacular trail along the cliff face with a spiral staircase, one might think that this is the origin of the name, but actually it is much older. The caves are located at the lower end of the Grand Goulet, a small dry valley in the Chartreuse massif. There is an escarpment, and the narrow gorge cutting through this escarpment forms a natural way to cross the mountain ridge. It ends in the middle of the cliff, so to reach the entrance to the gorge, it was necessary to climb up a long staircase which was cut into the cliff below. Those stairs were known as Scabilio or Grand Escallier, derived from the Latin scala. Those steps existed during the Middle Ages and were later replaced by a long ramp. They were obviously quite important, so the nearby town, 3 km to the southwest, was called Villa Scalas in the 10th century, later Castrum de Scalis, and since the 14th century Les Eschelles.

The caves were also known as Grottes de Saint-Christophe, and it seems this second name was lately promoted to the official name of the site. The full name is actually Site Historique des Grottes de Saint-Christophe and includes the whole gorge with its historic and natural monuments. This name is derived from the nearby village Saint-Christophe-sur-Guiers, which has less than 500 inhabitants living in several hamlets. The hamlet which is right below the gorge has a dozen houses and is called La Grotte or Saint-Christophe-la-Grotte, after the caves. So you can see there is a long list of names, nevertheless there was actually no reason for a name change. This name change took years, it started with a new domain in 2016, all the brochures and booklets were changed, and in 2022 the wikipedia page was adapted. There was no official name change though, it was more like a gradual process.

In our opinion, the name change was rather unfortunate. First of all, the old literature and numerous webpages still use the old name, so it is quite difficult to find info on the cave when you look for the new name. And second, there are numerous sites which are already named after Saint Christophe, he's a popular Saint after all, and so the confusion increases. Half the reviews on tripadvisor are actually for Grotte de Roque St Christophe in the Vezere valley. And third, when we designed showcaves.com we decided to use the name of the cave as the name of the html file for the cave. This works pretty well, except when a site is renamed, which is fortunately extremely rare, for obvious reasons. So we had to rename our page and change the sort order in any list, and it will take some time until the new page is found by search engines.

The gorge and the caves developed in the Lower Cretaceous limestone, which is called Urgonian in France. The caves are much older than the gorge, they are actually the same cave. After the last cold age, about 10,000 years ago, enormous amounts of ice were melting and caused streams of melting water which cut fast and deep into the rock. This is quite common, most gorges in the Alps were formed this way. However, in this case, the gorge cut through the cave, separated it into two parts, and also made it accessible.

The first who used this special location were the Romans, who built their road, the major route between Chambéry and Lyon, through the gorge. Although there is a rather weird theory that Hannibal used this gorge on his way across the Alps. The Roman road is mostly destroyed today, but some Roman remains are left, like the impressive Saint Martin's Bridge. Between 1667 and 1670, the Dukes of Savoy converted the dilapidated Roman road into a royal road suitable for coaches. A monumental, 400 m long dressed stone ramp was built, which actually covered the former stone staircase. Also, the Charles Emmanuel II Monument was erected in 1674, to commemorate the man behind the road development project. The 20 m high monument is listed in the national register of Historical Monuments. According to the cave guides, the monument was more expensive than the construction of the road. The Voie Sarde (Sardinian Way) was now used for two centuries. It got the name Voie Sarde later, after the Dukes of Savoy became sovereigns of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1720. The road had become the connection between the Kingdom of Sardinia and France. Famous travellers have used it, like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Pope Pius VII when he came to France in 1804 to consecrate Napoleon I as emperor. And Napoleon was actually responsible, that the Sardinian Way was abandoned. In 1804, he found the road too arduous, and ordered a tunnel to be built. This tunnel is called the tunnel des Échelles and was started in 1806 and completed in 1820. Today the road D1006 crosses the ridge through this tunnel, the Sardinian Way is used as a walking trail.

The caves were known for a long time, probably even the Romans ventured into one or both, when they travelled on this road. However, there is no way to know, since there are no written accounts and no archaeological remains in the caves. They were developed in the 19th century, to provide a tourist destination for the people bathing at la Bauche les Bains. The iron-laden thermal water was used to cure various illnesses, especially blood related diseases. The caves were owned at this time by the Périnel family, who created a company for the developments of the caves in 1884 and stared to sell stocks. One year later, the development started, and in 1886 the caves were opened to the public.

The caves were then operated as show caves for more than a century. They were managed by various institutions, but finally in 1995 the trails were in a bad shape. The caves were still guided with carbide lamps, which caused a lot of work. As a result, it was not possible to find a new lessee or an investor. So the caves were closed to the public, and it was not possible to enter them any more. In 1996 an association with the name Anim'Grotte was created to manage the Sardinian Way site, a part of the Parc Naturel Régional de Chartreuse (Regional Nature Park of the Chartreuse). They collaborated with the related institutions and were funded somehow. So they modernized the caves with new trails and electric light and reopened them in 2002. Since then, there is a small museum, a restaurant, modern toilets, and hourly guided tours. Tourist reception and ticket sales are located in the Auberge des Grottes (Cave Inn), an old road-mender's house dating back to when the tunnel was built. Anim'Grotte has given over, but who actually manages the cave is unclear, the municipality calls it a délégation de service public (DSP). Anim'Grotte still exists, but they are only organizing yearly events for the small village. Its former web domain is now re-used by an anonymous operator who promotes show caves all over the world, and they have a facebook page instead.

Make sure to buy your ticket at least 15 minutes before the tour starts, it's a 100 m walk down the gorge to the cave entrance where the tour starts. The tours are bilingual in French and English, written translations in Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian are available. The Grotte Supérieure (Upper Cave) is noted for various impressive speleothems in the salle du Dome. The entrance part has impressive dolly tubs and other erosional forms which were created by the cave river. The Romans had problems with the water from the cave. The cave was normally dry during summer, but at snow melt and during heavy rains it was reactivated, at least two or three times a year, and a massive river was flowing out of the resurgence. Those floods threatened the road, so a channel was built by the Romans, to allow the water to flow away without harming the road.

Grotte du Grand Goulet (Great Gully Cave) is also called Grotte Inférieure (Lower Cave). The cave is a through-cave and is entered from the upper end, the cave crosses the mountain ridge to the other side. The lower entrance is a huge portal in the middle of the escarpment, with a great view to Saint Christophe La Grotte. Located in the middle of the cliff face, the entrance is quite high but narrow, and looks like a cleft. Here the path is built at the vertical wall, 20 m above the floor of the cave. A path along the cliff face and down a spiral staircase leads to the lower end of the Sardinian Way, where the monument is located. From here it's a 600 m walk uphill back to the car park. The water from the upper cave, flowing through the Roman channel, once entered the lower cave. So the dolly tubs inside were reactivated, and the water reappeared at the huge entrance portal in the cliff. The Sardinian Way was constructed across the channel and blocks it now, so the water now flows down the road, and as a result the river passage is not reactivated any more. Such floods happen only during snow melt, when the cave is actually closed, and after very heavy rains, which are rare.

At the caves two different cave trekking tours are offered. On is normal caving without technical difficulties. The other is a sort of via ferrata inside the cave and requires a lot of climbing. It's called Acrospeleo, probably because it is for acrobats. The equipment is provided, but you should bring clothes to change, a towel, a plastic bag for dirty clothes and gloves. The cave trekking tours are organized by Cordeo, get more info on their website, which also allows online booking.

There is a legend, that Mandrin, the famous Dauphiné smuggler, used one of the caves as a hideout. Louis Mandrin (11-FEB-1725 to 26-MAY-1755) is a famous French smuggler. After his death, the legend of the vigilante bandit who fought against the inequity of the taxes of the Ancien Régime was told. It became well known by a song named Complainte de Mandrin from an unknown author. It was actually a new text for a traditional tune, and so anyone was able to sing it. However, the legend was a political statement and is not accurate, he was no French Robin Hood, just a smuggler, which is not even mentioned in the song.