Bernard Castillo, 67, owner of the Cova-Bastera cave located in Villefranche-de-Conflent (Pyrénées-Orientales), is preparing to hang up, in particular for health reasons. This character from the French world of converted caves, who works the old-fashioned way, without a website or marketing, has been operating the site since 1983.
It was his father who had acquired it two years earlier and had fitted it out for the visit of the general public, with lighting and sound. Said visit was chargeable until 2016. Since then, it is done freely, without entrance fee, with the economy of means.
The only cave in Europe classified by Unesco
“The time has come to step down. In recent years, we have recorded an average of 30,000 visits per year. It’s that we are perfectly located in Villefranche-de-Conflent, barely two meters from the national road 116. It is the only traffic axis that goes from the Côte Radieuse to Andorra”, argues the future retiree. who is looking for a buyer.
“A visitor of 30,000 people per year is not nothing. Many small caves in France do not have as many visitors. And it is one of the rare caves, the only one in Europe in any case, to be listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It enjoys an exceptional commercial location in the immediate vicinity of the heart of the city of Villefranche, which is quite rare”, explains Roselyne Aulner, spokesperson for Anecat, the association which brings together the managers of tourist caves fitted out for visiting France (108 sites listed).
“It is a cave fortified by Vauban in the same way as Fort Liberia and the ramparts of Villefranche. It is for this reason that it has been classified by Unesco”, adds Bernard Castillo who announces an 800 m visit route almost like in all the other caves that can be visited. The cave has a sale price of around 360,000 euros and it is possible to return very easily to a paying visit system, with a guide and the installation of a small souvenir shop.
Tourist cave transactions are quite rare in France. Over the last five years, it is only the fourth out of a hundred establishments after the cave of Carbonnière in the Lot, of Fontirou in the Lot-et-Garonne and the cave of the Luire in Saint-Agnan-en-Vercors (Drome).