An underground is a Cavité located under ground which one can reach from the surface or the interior of a building.

If the caves can be regarded as " undergrounds naturels" , the name of " souterrain" intends itself especially to indicate a cavity dug and arranged by the man , consequently non-naturelle: a cellar, a crypt, a shelter arches, a tunnel, are undergrounds. The underground is cut with same the rock if the basement is rock, that is to say built in masonry if the ground is movable.

Undergrounds and legends

Objects of phantasms in imaginary collective (hidden treasures, dragons by prohibiting the access, etc) the undergrounds often appear in the legends and the oral traditions attached to many monuments and old sites (castles, churches, vaults, etc) It is not a castle-extremely which one often does not say that it has an underground, a disproportionate length and whose mysterious site is obviously forgotten of long time. There exists nevertheless in these legends a certain share of truth: many castle-forts, of fortified towns, cities and medieval villages as well as churches, even quite simply had underground installations of various use (underground-refuges, underground of escape or of tactical military use) of the networks of cellars staged on several levels or of the underground careers which formerly on the spot provided the stone necessary to constructions. These cavities are perfectly known and identified nowadays (underground-refuge under the castle of Ussé, careers under that of Couçy, underground tactical of the castle of the Châtel-on-Moselle, networks of cellars of the medieval cities of Provins and Laon, village-refuge underground of Naours, " catacombes" Parisian, " cafforts" of Troo, to quote only some examples of them. But of the legendary undergrounds of three or four kilometers length, connecting two castles between them, were never discovered and will not be it as soon as…

" is called; cluzeau" , in the South-west of France, any cavity cut artificially in the rock for the habitat, the refuge or the storage of foodstuffs.

Principal types of undergrounds

Natural

Artificial

The underground-refuges are a little everywhere in France, but with a more important density in the West, North and South-west. Frequently of modest dimensions, they are characterized by a succession of small rooms connected between them by strong corridors narrow and low in which could progress only while curving the spine, even with four legs. These undergrounds generally did not present a solution of continuity and thus finished in cul-de-sac (one knows only some very rare examples of underground-refuges having a gallery of escape) Generally dug in rock ground and at a shallow depth under surface (2 to 4 meters) these undergrounds were used to shelter for short periods (probably a few days) of the families of peasants who sought to protect themselves from the exactions of the enemy troops of passage in the area. One reached these underground hiding places either by wells of descent, or by narrow staircases. On the surface, these entries could be closed by a trap door dissimulated under straw, a wood faggot or of the manure. In some cases, when the underground-refuge communicated with constructions of surface (castle, manor, buildings of farm) the access could be dissimulated in the thickness of a wall or the obscure angle of a cellar, like a true secrete way of novel. Certain underground-refuges were accessible only by one traditional well with water: after a few meters of descent along a cord, a narrow narrow part opened in the walls of the well. This crossed ventilation hole, one got a foothold in the underground grid (e.g.: the underground under the village of Balatre, accessible from one from the communal wells)

interior Dimensions: the underground-refuges do not present large-sized rooms and corridors. It is rare that one can rectify oneself entirely in a corridor of communication, one progresses there generally only while curving the back. The average height is there of one meter forty to one meter fifty. The width is just sufficient to let pass a man (of seventy centimetres to one meter) Fréquemment, the corridors are narrower besides on the ground than with their vault: there is just the place necessary to pose the feet. The rooms are just sufficient height so that one can to with it be held upright and their surface is reduced (by five to twenty square meters) These dimensions exigues are justified for the following reasons: 1/ Being oneself places intended to shelter a temporary and very precarious stay, they were not no need to excavate big spaces and volumes. 2/ to carry out low-size rooms and corridors made it possible to have less rock to dig and clear 3/ Exiguity (especially that of the corridors of communication between the various rooms) blocked the progression of the attacker if this one had managed to force the entry of the underground, forced it to adopt an unfavourable posture (one can with difficulty make use of its weapon when one walks completely arched or, worse, when one must progress to croupetons or four legs… Ventilation: Many underground-refuges were equipped with air ducts; those, of very low diameter, were drilled vertically in the vault of the rooms and emerged with the short-nap cloth of the ground, outside. By their number, they ventilated the underground by in-draft between the various rooms and made it possible to the occupants to breathe a livable air when those were numerous better, when they were to remain several days in the underground or, still, if the attacker tried to smoke out them by throwing straw ignited in the access passages. Some of these air vents, acting as chimney, made it possible to light a thin fire to be heated or make cook some food (in many undergrounds having of the air ducts, it exists soot traces on the walls located at the foot of these air ducts, as well as sites of hearth on the ground, indices which attest that the temporary occupants of places were brought to light small fires.

Water supply: In order to mitigate the need for water, many undergrounds had a well or, much more frequently, small basins hollowed out in the rock ground in which the water oozing of the walls was collected. Average defensive: various passive obstacles prevented the progression of an enemy who would have discovered the entry of the hiding place: wood doors, stoppings of strong beams piled up horizontally in vertical bleedings spared in the side walls of the passage, deep well-traps dissimulated with the outlet of a corridor or, very effective because frightening, ventilation holes (circular necks drilled in the rock, of about fifty centimetres in diameter at most) which one could cross only while crawling and with difficulty. To the outlet of the ventilation hole, the attacker, incompetent to protect itself before recovering upright, exposed themselves to the blows of the defenders. Only one of those could control and defend effectively the exit of the ventilation hole. Certain ventilation holes were closed, on the side of the attack, by heavy and thick cut cone cut of a block in stone. The external face of the stopper came to level the rock face, making its extraction very difficult without adapted heavy tools. A chain sealed in the inner face of the stopper, could make it possible to the defenders to firmly maintain this last plated in its housing. The well-traps were often laid out in outlet of gallery, therefore with the entry of a room. Deep on average of two meters, they were in the pear shape (their walls widened strongly towards the bottom) in order to make difficult, even impossible, the increase of a man alone. The attacker who fell into a well-trap was highly likely to fracture a leg or to be wounded seriously (two mêtres of vertical fall). Even unscathed, it could not only be extracted some because of the very widened walls, its feet not finding any support.

From the 14th century, defenses of underground-refuges improved: with the traditional passive obstacles presented previously, one added elements of active defense: holes of aiming drilled in the walls which made it possible to make use of piles, crossbows or, as from the 15th century, of individual firearms (sticks with fire, hacquebutes then arquebuses). The orientation of these holes of aiming, perfectly calculated by the builders, made it possible to make fire with judged in the darkness while being practically certain of touching the attacker. The holes of aiming were located generally downstream or upstream door, of a well-trap or a baffle, where the attacker, slowed down by or stopped by the obstacle, was in position of greater vulnerability.

Other means of defense: Two excellent specialists in the underground-refuges - Jerome and Laurent Triolet- established that molosses was probably used for defense. Indeed, in certain underground-refuges, one notes the presence of rings of fastener dug in the rock faces. These rings are located in the vicinity immediate of a door, generally upstream of this one. Traces of claws on the walls leave think ques of the animals were connected there, in order to defend the access to the door. They were probably dogs of strong size, of molosses type (the dogs of war were frequently used in the Middle Ages and until the 16th century) especially drawn up to attack in silence in the darkness.

To try to seize a underground-refuge presented consequently a real risk for the attackers who were obliged to progress almost to four legs in these unknown bowels, narrow and obscure where they could constantly be reached of a blow of spear, a discharge of arquebus spouted out of a hole of the wall or be attacked by a dog in fury. The risk was thus quite disproportionate compared to the spoils to hope. Indeed, the peasants who took refuge in these undergrounds were very poor for the majority and carried with them a little food as well as the few coins which constituted all their thin economies. Certain underground rooms were also used to shelter smaller live-stock (sheep, goats) or poultries bus of the niche-mangers, dug in the walls, were observed very often. The well arranged underground-refuges were thus a remarkable protection against the raids of soldiers and plunderers of any hair which ravagaient the campaigns during and after the conflicts (Road, Ecorcheurs, etc…) These undesirable occupants did not remain besides well a long time in the villages which they had seized. They bivouacked possibly on the spot, benefitted from it to plunder the objects which the inhabitants had not taken along under ground, then the dwellings set fire to, flew the grain and the cattle which could not have been put at the shelter, then set out again the following day or two days afterwards. Why these bands of plunderers would have ventured in an underground of which they would have discovered the entry? The risk was too well-known of these hard soldiers and they knew all that the stake was not worth generally the candle of it. One is not made kill to seize handles of piécettes, from some thin food or two or three women to be violated.

The underground-refuges were very precisely qualified " castle-forts of the pauvres". It is noted besides that they are in stronger density in the areas of plain which offered only few natural refuges (mountains, cliffs, caves) and also in the campaigns deprived of strengthened cities or castles in the vicinity.

  • underground annular with " vocation cultuelle" (Antiquity, the Middle Ages)

The annular undergrounds are located in particular geological zones. An annular group of underground is localized in the north-western part of the Two-Sevres and the north-eastern part of the Vendée (Even Bulletins of Association for the development of Archeology on Niort and the Surroundings). This area is characterized by a basement made up of granite, granitic arena or schist, which are architectoniquement unsuited to the digging. In fact, the vast rooms, the broad corridors are excluded. Other areas as Drill it and Velay have a density of annular undergrounds higher than the national average. The morphology of the annular undergrounds seems to result from these technical constraints imposed by the hardness of the ledge. The annular undergrounds present only seldom installations of defense. Their initial digging thus does not seem to be dictated by sedentary requirements. If defense forces there is, it is probable that it is about a later re-use of the underground annlaire in underground-refuge. On the other hand, the pertaining to worship vocation of the " undergrounds annulaires" , often advanced in the publications, is not confirmed by material discoveries (statuettes, sculpture of the walls…).
  • underground soldiers (galleries of countermines, undergrounds of escape)

See too

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