Les Ponts Naturels de Minerve

Minerve, listed among the most beautiful villages in France, is perched on a rocky spur at the confluence of the canyons of the Cesse and its tributary the Brian, in the Haut-Languedoc Regional Nature Park. These gorges, cut into limestone, form a natural defence and have also shaped two natural bridges: the Pont Grand, about 228 metres long and 6 to 28 metres high at the entrance, and the Pont Petit, further upstream on the Cesse, about 126 metres long.

The village is also a notable place of the Albigensian Crusade. In 1210, after a siege of about five weeks led by Simon de Montfort, Minerve surrendered, and about a hundred Cathar perfecti who refused to recant were burned alive. Today, this site with a Mediterranean climate receives more than 300,000 visitors a year, attracted by both its heritage and its gorge landscapes.

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