Cathedrale d’Images

Carrières des Lumières

Useful Information

Location:	Route de Maillane, 13520 Les Baux-de-Provence. Les Baux, Provence. At the road from Les Baux to , Val d’Enfer’s (Hell Valley). (43.7488969, 4.7972179)
Open:	JAN daily 10-18. FEB to MAR daily 9:30-18. APR to JUN daily 9:30-19. JUL to AUG daily 9-19:30. SEP to OCT daily 9:30-19. NOV to DEC daily 10-18. [2026]
Fee:	Adults EUR 16.50, Children (7-17) EUR 14, Children (0-6) free, Students (-25) EUR 14, Seniors (65+) EUR 15.50, Families (2+2) EUR 46. [2026]
Classification:	Limestone Mine Rock Mine
Light:	Electric Light
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:	Albert Plécy (1999): hommes d’images, Actes Sud (4 juin 1999), ISBN: 2742712127.
Address:	Carrières des Lumières, Route de Maillane, 13520 Les Baux de Provence, Tel: +33-490-543865. E-mail:
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

1935	quarry closed because economic competition from modern materials made it unprofitable.
1959	filming location for the Jean Cocteau movie The Testament of Orpheus.
1975	quarries first visited by Albert Plécy.
1977	Albert Plécy died, work continued by his wife Anne Plécy.
2011	management of the Quarries entrusted to Culturespaces.
2012	reopened under the name Carrières des Lumières with the exhibition "Gauguin, Van Gogh, the painters of color".
19-JAN-2018	the High Court of Tarascon orders the municipality to pay €5.8 million in damages to Cathedrale d'Images.

Description

The Cathedrale d’Images (Cathedral of Images), also known as Carrières de Lumières or Carrières des Bringasses et Grands Fonts, is a modern use for an old quarry. It is somewhere between an art exhibition and a multimedia artwork. Created by the artist Albert Plécy, it shows exhibitions in an absolutely new way. The pictures are projected on the white walls of the former quarry. Albert Plécy was editor-in-chief of the Parisien libéré and president of the Gens d'Images association, which he had founded with Jacques Henri Lartigue and Raymond Grosset. When he visited the quarries for the first time in 1975 he was impressed by the caverns, and he opened the Cathedral of Images two years later. This image exhibition has a theme, which changes every year. He died in the same year at the age of 31, he was found dead with a shotgun on 01-MAY in the quarries. The exhibition was continued by his wife Anne Plécy for decades. Her association which operated the site over years was also named Société Cathedrale d’Images (Cathedral of Images).

In 2008, the city of Les-Baux-de-Provence decided to entrust the management of the Quarries to Culturespaces, and Cathedrale d’Images was factually evicted. They had a commercial lease which expired in 2010. Culturespaces is a company which manages about half a dozen art exhibitions in France and internationally. They reopened the site under the name of Carrières des Lumières in 2012 with the exhibition Gauguin, Van Gogh, the painters of color. However, Cathedrale d'Images did not agree to be evicted and took the matter to court, highlighting the artistic work it had been doing for 35 years. Actually Culturespaces was accused of parasitism by taking over a site and concept which was established over years and had 600,000 paying visitors per year. On 19-JAN-2018, the High Court of Tarascon ordered the municipality to pay €5.8 million in damages to Cathedrale d'Images. However, Culturespaces reproduced the concept of this site quite successful throughout the world, and earns a lot of money with it. Similar exhibitions now exist in Paris, in Bassin des Lumières in Bordeaux, in the Bunker of the Enlightenment in South Korea, in New York and Dubai.