The Beast of Gévaudan

Nobody in Haute-Loire is afraid of the werewolf, considered a harmless creature for the past 300 years. However, the evil, starving Bête du Gévaudan is another story...

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The Beast of Gévaudan - a series of bloody crimes in Margeride

For 3 years, it terrorised inhabitants of Margeride, a small, remote province astride Lozère and Haute-Loire. This incredibly fast-moving beast terrified the whole region between 30 June 1764 and 19 June 1767.
Legends and eye-witness accounts, the mystery still remains…
It all began in Langogne where the body of a young 14 year old girl, Jeanne Boulet, was discovered ripped apart by a ferocious beast. This was the first in a long series of horribly bloodthirsty crimes. Over the next 3 years more than a hundred mangled bodies of women and children were found, some had even been decapitated. Was it the work of a man or an animal ? Eye-witness accounts by victims who survived were categorical, it was definitely not human !
« A beast with an enormous head, a reddish body with a black stripe the length of its back, a very bushy tail and huge paws with long claws. »
The newspapers of the period fuelled the hysteria by running regular, lengthy articles without reliable proof. The Bishop of Mende regarded the attacks as divine retribution and urged the local people to spend every Sunday at prayer to stamp out the evil.

Hunting down the Bête du Gévaudan

Musée Bête du Gévaudan — The immortal side of the animal which, despite being injured on several occasions, continued its attacks, made it appear even more supernatural and diabolical. The attacks in different villages multiplied at a staggering rate throughout Auvergne, Ardèche, Cantal and Lozère. Everywhere the animal was described as an enormous beast and when the link was made between it and the bodies, mass hysteria resulted throughout the region. Nobody ventured outside their village alone and nobody dared go outside at night. The whole province stood by helplessly as the murderous attacks spread and the sovereignty of King Louis XIV was seriously called into question. The governor of Gévaudan organised numerous search parties led by Captain Duhamel, but to no avail and the beast remained out of control.

The King sent his Dragoons (the finest soldiers at the time) to restore order, but all in vain.
François Antoine, lieutenant in the King’s hunting party, reputed to be the finest shot in the kingdom, was dispatched to Gévaudan to save the King’s honour. After tracking the animal for 3 months, he killed a large wolf in September 1765 and its body was stuffed and sent to the King. However, it later became clear that this was a trick destined to restore the image of the King.
Numerous heroic men confronted the beast and tried to scare it off and in the end after years of tracking, it was finally killed by Jean-Chastel. The post-mortem confirmed that the beast was a cross between a dog and a wolf, but its remains were moved elsewhere and then vanished.

The Musée Fantastique de la Bête du Gévaudan

The village of Saugues was the scene of some awful sights and the bloody, indelible mark of the beast is still there to this day at the Musée Fantastique de la Bête du Gévaudan.
To know more about the beast, this extraordinary museum traces the legend of Saugues through 22 audio-visual displays…

Musée Fantastique de la Bête du Gévaudan
Rue de la Tour
43170 Saugues
For more information about the area, contact the Office de Tourisme des Gorges de l’Allier.

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