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...
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
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.
Discover Haute-Loire, the Fêtes Renaissance du Roi de l'Oiseau, and the historic buildings of Puy-en-Velay,"