L’abri de la Chaire-à-Calvin

The Chaire-à-Calvin shelter is located about ten kilometers from Angoulême. The site, property of the Charente Department, has been protected by a classification as a Historic Monument since 1986.

From 1864, the deposit was the subject of research and it was in 1924 that a sculpted frieze 3 m long was discovered on a wall of the shelter. This frieze represents three animal figures on the same plane, a fourth is located slightly further back in the shelter. Several interpretations of the sculpted ensemble clash. Are they horses? ibexes? cattle? The use of new technologies and in particular digitization techniques, offer new hypotheses...

However, a century of excavation on this deposit has yielded, quantitatively and qualitatively, a rich archaeological material consisting of chisels, scrapers, bone objects (assegai points, grooved sticks, needles, pierced sticks), sandstone lamps, but also a soapstone bucket. Part of the furniture, as well as a sculpted block, are on display at the Angoulême Museum.

Between 2008 and 2010, conservation and landscaping work was carried out by the Department to make the site accessible to the public. An interpretation table has also been installed outside the shelter to discover, facing the only accessible original sculpted frieze.

Guided tours 2023: July 21, 28 and August 4, 11 and 18 at 10 a.m., duration 1 hour 30 minutes, free
max. 20 people Online reservations required

European Heritage Days on September 16 and 17, 2023: guided tours

Opening

From 15/03 to 30/04, daily from 9 a.m. to 19 p.m.

From 01/05 to 15/08, daily from 9 a.m. to 21 p.m.

From 16/08 to 15/10, daily from 9 a.m. to 19 p.m.

Accessibility

  • Tourism and Handicap brand - hearing impairment
  • Tourism and Handicap brand - mental disability