Village de Berzème
Berzeme is located in the plateau of the Coiron. You leave the landscape of valleys and cliffs to discover lush green fields with green pastures and hedgerows.
Berzeme is located in the plateau of the Coiron. You leave the landscape of valleys and cliffs to discover lush green fields with green pastures and hedgerows.
Statue of the Virgin at the top of the basaltic neck.
Romans Bridge
Discover the remains of the Bastide Royale, in the heart of Villeneuve de Berg The Bastide Royale was created in 1284 by a deed of betrothal between Philippe III le Hardi, King of France, and the Abbot of Mazan. This established royal justice over the whole of the Bas Vivarais and built a new town with its ramparts, its corner towers, its war gate or gate of honour adorned with the coat of arms of the town, its royal house, now the town hall (under the courtroom you can visit the prisons). Ancient sundials can be seen in the streets of the village.
Neolithic dolmen of Mias. Ardèche is one of the departments with the most dolmens. This Breton name means "stone table", they are funerary monuments. They appear in 2500 years before J-C, end of the Neolithic and in the Bronze Age.
The church of St. Etienne located at the end of the village was constructed during the latter part of the 12th century and may have been built on an earlier structure which has been referred to in writings as of 950AD.
The chapel, coil up on a neck, has been built during the XIXth century to fight against the phylloxera (vineyards illness). In the future: laying out of the interior of the chapel, extension for the crossroads and parking.
It was the one of the oldest and most important fiefdoms of the Barons of Aps. Located at the foot of the Coiron, the village was fortified by the 14th century. You can imagine the form of the village by tracing the remnants of the defensive wall.
At the southern end of the village you will find an exceptional archeological and geological site, called Balmes de Montbrun. The name Balmes d'Montbrun or burned mountain, evokes its volcanic origins.
The church has a strange bell tower: a 9m high statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. It is said that it would have been built in thanks for having spared the village from an epidemic of cholera which had struck the neighboring villages.