Ancient Wonder

An ultra-modern replica of the prehistoric Lascaux cave has opened next to the original site in Dordogne. Peter Stewart travels back in time on a guided tour.

- Peter Stewart

I am staring at two rather menacing bulls. There they stand, with their thick black horns and surprisingly delicate thin legs, pawing the ground and ready to charge. Thankfully, I am not standing face-to-face with real-life beasts. Instead, these massive creatures, five metres from horn to tail, are impressive images displayed on the walls of the Centre International de l’Art Pariétal, a spectacular new replica of the millennia-old Lascaux cave.

This €57 million state-of-the-art centre, also known as Lascaux 4, sits at the foot of a hill in the town of Montignac in the Dordogne département. It was here that the original cave was accidentally discovered by a group of teenagers – among them, Marcel Ravidat, and his dog Robot – in September 1940. The ultra-modern structure, characterised by oversized glass panels and grey, striated concrete, was designed by Norwegian architects Snøhetta, who wanted the building to be “an incision on the landscape” and to highlight the “link between the past and present”.

The original cave, which lies just over the hill, has been out of bounds to the public since 1963, when it was found that visitors’ breathing was destroying some of the paintings. In 1983, a replica known as Lascaux 2 opened 200 metres away, but concerns were soon raised about the number of visitors on top of the hill and the effect this would have on the original cave. In the early 1990s, the Périgord facsimile workshop created an 800 square metre mobile exhibition known as Lascaux 3, which has been on a world tour ever since.