Lac du Salagou

Grand Site Salagou – cirque de Mourèze

The construction of a dam to contain the waters of the Salagou was first envisaged in the ‘50s.

At the time there was an overproduction of wine. This inspired the idea of a more diversified production of a fruit growing culture. For which it was necessary to have water for irrigation.

Here in the autumn an occurring phenomenon called the « cévenol » brings with it lots of rain and often devastating floods. Even the modest river Salagou turns red and its water flows into the river Lergue and the river Hérault downstream with spectacular consequences.

It was thus decided to create the lake Salagou to regulate its swelling and as such give preference to a water reserve.

Construction work started in 1964 and finished in 1969 while preparation of the impoundment took almost three years.

Lac du Salagou

Some figures

The dam is 3140 feet long and 204 feet high. It needed 1 650 000 tons of basalt rock for the building of the rock walls.
The lake Salagou retains 410 million cubic feet of water. It has a surface area of 1853 acres. It can reach a depth of 230 feet.

However no programme for fruit growing cultivation ever saw the light of day. Other neighbouring regions took up the initiative.

Today the lake Salagou has become a key tourist destination admired for its beauty, its diversity and its singularity! It has become a « paradise » for lovers of nature and big open spaces!

Vallée Salagou
Vallée Salagou
Vallée du Salagou
This site and related services may place cookies * (or trackers) on your computer.
They are not installed by default.

Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Trip Advisor, etc.) may deposit cookies intended for statistical and marketing monitoring of your link sharing. Refer to their respective privacy policies for more information.
The refusal of these cookies will not affect your visit to the current site, but will prevent you from sharing the content of this site on your respective networks.

* a cookie is a small file stored by a server in the terminal (computer, telephone, etc.) of a user and associated with a web domain (i.e. in most cases to all the pages of 'same website). This file is automatically returned on subsequent contacts with the same domain.
Your consent
This site uses cookies (or tracers) when you browse. Your explicit consent is required for their use. Click here to find out more
This site and related services may place cookies * (or trackers) on your computer.
They are not installed by default.

Online video distribution platforms (Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc.) may place cookies intended for statistical and marketing monitoring of your consultations. Refer to their respective privacy policies for more information.
The refusal of these cookies will not affect their consultation on the current site.

This site is subject to audience measurement via the Google Analytics platform. See the Google Analytics privacy policy for more information.
Refusing these cookies will not affect your user experience on the current site.

Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Trip Advisor, etc.) may deposit cookies intended for statistical and marketing monitoring of your link sharing. Refer to their respective privacy policies for more information.
The refusal of these cookies will not affect your visit to the current site, but will prevent you from sharing the content of this site on your respective networks.

* a cookie is a small file stored by a server in the terminal (computer, telephone, etc.) of a user and associated with a web domain (i.e. in most cases to all the pages of 'same website). This file is automatically returned on subsequent contacts with the same domain.