How to Make Sense of an Undrowned Town

In the mid-20th century, rural France had a glut of vintners and a lack of agricultural diversity. Authorities hatched a plan to build a reservoir in the Salagou Valley in southern France, in order to refresh the soil and encourage new crops. The original plan called for the reservoir to inundate the small village of Celles, home to 63 residents whose families had lived there for generations.

Between 1959 and 1968, the inhabitants of Celles were pushed to sell their homes to make way for the reservoir. Those who didn’t were expropriated, their houses left empty.

In 1968, the dam on the Salagou River was finally finished. The water crept up slowly, covering the red clay landscape. But just short of the village, it stopped. In the original plans the water was supposed to rise to the 150-meter altitude mark. But in the end it stopped permanently at 139 meters, 4 meters lower than the village.

By then there were no inhabitants left, and the buildings began to fall into ruin. But some former residents, particularly one family, never gave up on Celles. Fifty years later, read about the effort to rebirth a town killed by good intentions at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Sam Harrison)


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