Grotte du Chien

Dog's Cave

Useful Information

Location:	19 Avenue de la Gare, 63 400 Royat-Chamalières. Royat, near Clermont-Ferrand. (45.7692318, 3.0598927)
Open:	closed. [2024]
Fee:	closed. [2024]
Classification:	Blister cave. Dog's Cave.
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:	L=10 m, VR=0 m.
Guided tours:	D=20 min, . Video in
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Grotte du Chien, 19 Avenue de la Gare, 63 400 Royat-Chamalières, Tel: +33-473-190550, Fax: +33-473-190550.
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

1787	visited by the writer Pierre Jean-Baptiste Legrand d'Aussy, describing the visit and how he became unwell in his book makes the cave known.
1875	bought by Doctor Petit and opened as a show cave, becomes popular among Royat spa guests.
1902	caretaker's house at the cave entrance built after plans by architect Louis Jarrier.
1949	Grotte des Laveuses declared a National Heritage at the request of the municipality.
1986	cave closed.
1994	purchased by Claude and Huguette Girard and reopened.
2004	cave closed, purchased by the municipality but not reopened.
2017	cave filmed for an arte documentary about volcanism.

Description

This is a lava cavity, about 10 m high and 25 m in circumference. It has the same reputation as the Dog's Cave in Italy. Due to volcanic action, carbon dioxide gas rises from cracks in the floor of the cave and forms a layer, below which a dog will quickly expire whilst his owner can continue to breath the pure air in the layer above. Today this experiment is carried out with a lighted candle.

Text by Tony Oldham (2002). With kind permission.

This French dog cave, Grotte du Chien, was definitely dubbed so after the Italian and with the carbon dioxide source inside it has the same effect. The identical name, the Italian cave is also called Grotte du Chien in French, causes some confusion. The cave is also called Grotte Saint-Mart (Saint-Mart Cave), named after the hermit Martius, or Mars de Royat, who lived in the caves of Royat around 450. According to legend he miraculously healed many people, the most famous patient was the father of Grégoire de Tours, the bishop of Tours and historian. The cave is from the geological view a mofetta, a volcanic source of carbon dioxide. The basalt is either a lava flow from the Petit Puy de Dôme and 42,000 years old or from the Puy de Gravenoire and 65,000 years, it seems the sources disagree about this. The cave is a rare blister cave with about 10 m in diameter, which makes it one of only two listed on showcaves.com as show caves. The cave seems to be bigger, because it is reached through an artificial tunnel from the entrance building on the opposite side of the road.

The cave was once owned by a miller who stored his wine here. But he called the cave l’étouffis (suffocating), so he entered it rarely. But even then he now or then showed it to interested visitors. The cave became well known after it was visited by the author Pierre Jean-Baptiste Legrand d'Aussy. He described the visit and how he became unwell in his book, which was rather popular and made the cave widely known. But actually the use as show cave started much later, in 1875, when it was purchased by Doctor Petit. At this time the Royat spa was quite popular and the cave was frequented by the spa guests. This is probably the time when the cave was named Grotte du Chien, as the guides went into the cave with a dog on a leash. After some time, the dog lost consciousness due to the lack of oxygen. But after he was brought back out into the fresh air, he soon recovered. Some cave guides accelerated the process by giving him a few kicks. Its unclear when this ended, but at least in the late 20th century this experiment was replaced by a less brutal experiment with a candle.

The cave contains a wooden bench, placed at the deepest point of the cave, which makes it deadly. It is called mother-in-law’s bench, as according to local lore one of the owners tried to get rid of his mother-in-law. He placed the bench here and offered his mother-in-law to have a seat. But when she became dizzy she ran away shouting and crying.

This dog cave was rather popular during the 19th and early 20th century. There are numerous postcards with black and white photographs sold. The cave was operated as a show cave until 2004, when the last owners sold it to the municipality. They do not plan to reopen it, except as a part of a larger volcanism theme park. So it is quite unlikely it will be reopened. But you may see the cave on TV, as it was filmed in 2017 for a documentary by the French/German culture tv arte.

We would have listed the cave for its importance, and to publish the fact that it is actually closed, which is hard to determine as non-existing show caves actually have non-existing webpages. It took us some research to finally determine that the cave was closed. However, the page is also a way to list the other two blister caves, which are actually accessible. The suburb Royat of Clermont-Ferrand is located in the west of the city, and is built along the river La Tiretaine. There is a park along the river which is named Parc Thermal (Spa Park) because the Thermes de Royat are located at its eastern end. This park has several small caves, the Grotte du Chien is located at the eastern end of the park. There are two more caves at the western end, right beneath the church Église Saint-Léger de Royat, which are named Grotte Siméoni and Grotte des Laveuses. The Grotte Siméoni contains a spring, which was used to supply the fontaine d’Amboise (Amboise Fountain) with water. The fountain was constructed by the 16th century Florentine engineer Gabriel Siméoni, hence the name of the cave. The Grotte des Laveuses (Cave of the Washerwomen) has seven springs at the wall and at the floor. The cave portal is 30 m wide and 3.50 m high, it forms a single chamber or shelter which is about 10 m long. The cave contains a long trapezoid basin which was used by the local women for washing clothes in the spring water. Both caves are interpreted as blister caves, like the nearby Dog's Cave. The caves were opened by the erosion of the river La Tiretaine cutting into the lava flow, so there might also have been some erosional widening. Both caves are freely accessible and can be visited on a short hike through the park. The caves cannot be entered as they are gated, but it's possible to see the whole cave through the gates. Also, there are guided tours to the caves. The closest car park is located right in front of the caves at the Rue de la Grotte.