The Grotto & Waterfall of Buttes-Chaumont
Why is it significant?
Step into the cool shadow of the cave and let your eyes adjust. Water pours from an opening high in the vault, splashing down over the rocks into a pool, and long pointed stalactites hang from the ceiling above your head.
Key Facts
| Place | The Grotto & Waterfall of Buttes-Chaumont |
|---|---|
| Address | Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Avenue de la Cascade, 75019 Paris, France |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.87980, 2.38370 |
| Part of Walk | Rebel Hill: Buttes-Chaumont, Belleville & the Secrets of Père-Lachaise in Paris |
| Generated | Generated |
Step into the cool shadow of the cave and let your eyes adjust. Water pours from an opening high in the vault, splashing down over the rocks into a pool, and long pointed stalactites hang from the ceiling above your head. On a hot Paris afternoon this is the coolest spot in the nineteenth arrondissement.
Now reach out and touch one of those stalactites, if you can. They are not stone at all. They are made of cement, moulded and coloured by the park's builders in the 1860s to make the visitors of the Second Empire feel like explorers in the Alps. The waterfall is fake too, in a way: it is fed by pumped water, switched on and off like a fountain. Alphand's engineers were artists of illusion, and this cave is their masterpiece.
But the cave sits on something real. This is where the entrance to the old gypsum quarry used to be. Behind and below you, the hill is still riddled with galleries where men once hacked out the white stone by candlelight. The gypsum of this hill and of Montmartre was so good, and so plentiful, that plaster made from it became known around the world simply as plaster of Paris. The quarries made the hill rich... and then made it hollow. Building on top of these galleries remains a headache for engineers to this day.
The park has darker memories as well. In May 1871, during the last days of the Paris Commune, Buttes-Chaumont was one of the final strongholds of the insurgents. Government troops took the heights after heavy fighting, and the park became a place where the dead of that week were gathered. You will meet the end of that story at the very end of this walk.
Today, of course, the park belongs to joggers, picnickers and families, and on a sunny weekend the slopes are covered with people. Leave by the southern side of the park and climb up towards the old village street of Belleville, to the neo-Gothic church that stands at its heart.