Built on the side of the two majestic rocks of St-Julien and Peyremale that frame the Gardon river, this small town renowned for its pottery, is the ideal spot for discovering the southern Cévennes and tourist sites such as the Bamboo Plantation of the Cévennes, the Trabuc cave and the Musée du Désert.
Much visited in summer it still keeps its charm and it is pleasant to stroll along its narrow and winding lanes in the old center where there are many shops and craftspeople.
The tourist office proposes a tour that lets you appreciate the historic heritage of Anduze and discover its Protestant temple, one of the biggest in France, the clock tower, the Rue Droite, the Pezene Tower, lthe pagoda fountain, the Saint-Etienne church, the quay and the fountains.
Don't leave Anduze without visiting “Les Enfants de Boisset” a veritable institution has has perpetuating for centuries the tradition of vase-making in Anduze. The tour of the workshops and the small family museum reveals all the secrets of this ancestral know-how: the extraction of the clay, the spinning, the slip coating, the glazing and the firing. Fifteen days went into the making of these vases that adorned the court of King Louis XIV.
The little steam train of the Cévennes offers you the most pleasurable manner of discovering the landscapes of the Valley of the Gardons and will take you to Saint-Jean-du-Gard, with a stop at the Bamboo Plantation of the Cevennes.
Anduze, on the banks of the Gardon
The roofs of the village of Anduze
The train of the Cevennes in Anduze
Many ruins testify to human settlements since prehistoric times.
Above Anduze, the site of the Grande Paillières conserves many megalithic vestiges and dolmens from the neolithic period. From the top of the hill, the panorama over the Cévennes is grandiose.
Gauls and Romans left an Oppidum and a Castrum at the summit of the Saint-Julien rock.
In the 12th century, the fiefdom Anduze was one of the most powerful in Languedoc. It was attached to the French monarchy in 1266.
In the 16th century, the now fortified town had a population of 6,000 and became an important center of Protestantism in the Cevennes, which, with its republican system, aspired to organizing itself as a distinct state. Anduze became the general headquarters of the Duke of Rohan, chief of the Protestant resistance during the wars that he lead starting in 1621 against the armies of King Louis XIII. The king's pardon was granted with the Peace Treaty of Alès in 1629 on the condition that the ramparts be demolished. Today, only one tower remains, saved thanks to its function as a clock tower.
If Anduze regained its prosperity thanks to the silk industry, it lost its position of dominance with the growth of Alès and its coal mines, before being hit by the recession like the rest of the Cévennes.
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