Historically, the identity of the Cévennes is based on a spirit of resistance forged during the long and tragic repression of the Reformation. It has been formed to an equal extent over the past thousand years by the cultivation of great orchards of sweet-chestnut trees and by local grazing practices, as well as by the more recent impact of silkworm breeding, mining and industry, and the gradual rural exodus that followed their decline.
Prehistoric roots
The Cévennes and the limestone plateaux of the Causses were first exposed to early forms of agriculture in prehistoric times. In the highlands, the mysterious large megaliths (standing stones) and the immense steppe-like prairies with their enigmatic origin date from this period.
During the Gallo-Roman period, the old hill-forts (oppidums) were abandoned in favour of sites that were closer to arable land and communication routes.
The Middle Ages
The sweet-chestnut orchards introduced by the Romans were greatly extended in order to meet the needs of a rapidly growing rural population. This ‘Chestnut Civilisation’ appears to have been well established in the Cévennes from the eleventh century. It continued to develop until the beginning of the fourteenth century.
From the second half of the eleventh century, monastic estates in the area began to expand. Higher ground was cleared to extend pastures. The monks, aided by shepherds, opened their grazing land to the migrating sheep herds of the plains of Languedoc.
The modern era: from the 16th to the 18th centuries
The central element of this period – a time of great faith, persecution and confrontation – was resistance against the power of the State by proclaiming one’s freedom of conscience. This forged the Protestant Cévenol identity.
This identity has marked the landscape in both sombre and more cheerful ways. Dramatic sites dot the wilderness and villages of valleys and hilltops: secret religious gathering places, prophets’ stones and trees, caves of the Camisard rebels.
In parallel with these dramatic events, the rural food-crop economy was systematically organised. The Cévenol landscape of chestnut orchards and high-altitude pastures was reinforced.
The great changes: 18th to the early 20th century
In the age of silkworm breeding, the Cévennes experienced a demographic and economic apogee that lives on in local memory as a veritable golden age. The great wave of construction and landscaping connected to this new form of agriculture lastingly transformed the Cévenol landscape. Building styles changed, new terracing was laid out, and hundreds of silk mills were created.