Lascaux IV — International Centre for Cave Art visitor guide — everything you need to know before visiting

At a glance

Address

Lascaux IV — Centre International de l'Art Pariétal, Avenue de Lascaux, 24290 Montignac-Lascaux, Dordogne, France

Operator

Semitour Périgord, the public operating company that runs Lascaux IV and other Dordogne heritage sites

What you visit

Lascaux IV — the complete full-scale replica of the cave (opened 2016). The original cave has been closed to the public since 1963 and is not open under any ticket.

Discovered

12 September 1940, by four teenagers — Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel and Simon Coencas — near Montignac

Age of the art

Roughly 17,000 years old — Magdalenian, Upper Palaeolithic

The paintings

About 600 painted and drawn figures plus nearly 1,500 engravings; the Hall of the Bulls holds the largest figure, an aurochs over 5 metres long

Ticket type

Timed-entry guided visit — tickets are time-stamped; arrive at least 20 minutes before your slot

UNESCO context

Inscribed in 1979 as part of the 'Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley' (List ref. 85)

Typical visit

About 2.5 hours — roughly 1 hour for the guided cave replica, plus the workshop galleries, 3D cinema and exhibition

What is Lascaux, and what do you actually visit?

Lascaux is a decorated cave near Montignac in the Dordogne, in south-west France, whose walls carry one of the supreme achievements of prehistoric art: hundreds of animals — aurochs, horses, stags, bison and ibex — painted and engraved roughly 17,000 years ago by Magdalenian hunter-gatherers of the last Ice Age. Discovered by four teenagers in 1940, it is so rich and so well preserved that it is often called the 'Sistine Chapel of prehistory'. Across its galleries are about 600 painted and drawn figures and nearly 1,500 engravings, with the celebrated Hall of the Bulls — dominated by an aurochs over five metres long — the most famous chamber of all.

Crucially, you do not visit the original cave. It was closed to the public in 1963 because the breath, heat and humidity of large numbers of visitors had begun to damage the paintings, and it has remained sealed ever since, entered only by conservators. What visitors experience instead is Lascaux IV — the International Centre for Cave Art — a complete, full-scale replica that recreates the entire cave to the millimetre. Being explicit about this matters: the art is real and ancient, but it is protected forever, and the replica is how the world rightly experiences it today. Far from a compromise, Lascaux IV lets you see the whole cave in conditions the original could never safely offer.

The discovery: four teenagers and a dog, 1940

On 12 September 1940, four teenagers from the Montignac area — Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel and Simon Coencas — were exploring a hole on a wooded hillside, said to have been opened by a fallen tree and brought to their attention by Ravidat's dog. Squeezing down through a narrow shaft, they found themselves in a chamber whose walls blazed with painted animals no one had seen for some 17,000 years. It was one of the most extraordinary archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, made — poignantly — in the early months of the German occupation of France.

The boys kept watch over their find and helped show it to the prehistorian Abbé Henri Breuil, who confirmed its authenticity and importance. After the war Lascaux opened to the public and became a sensation, drawing huge crowds through the 1950s. That very popularity proved its undoing: the conditions inside changed, algae and mineral crusts spread, and the paintings began to deteriorate — leading to the closure that still stands today. The story of the four discoverers, and of how the cave had to be sealed to save it, is told vividly at Lascaux IV and is one of the most moving parts of the visit.

Why the original cave is closed — and why that's the point

When Lascaux opened to the public after the Second World War, up to around 1,200 visitors a day passed through it. Their breath released carbon dioxide and water vapour, raising the temperature and humidity, and the cave — stable for 17,000 years — began to change. By the late 1950s a green algae (the 'green sickness') and later white calcite and black mould threatened the paintings. In 1963 the French authorities took the difficult decision to close the original cave to the public to save the art. It has never reopened, and today it is monitored continuously in carefully controlled, near-dark conditions by a small team of specialists.

This is why every honest account of visiting Lascaux begins with the same fact: no tourist enters the original cave, and no ticket — from anyone — provides access to it. Rather than a disappointment, this is the foundation of one of the great conservation stories in heritage. The replicas exist precisely so that the cave can be experienced without being destroyed, and Lascaux IV is the fullest answer yet: the complete cave, recreated so faithfully that visitors routinely forget they are not inside the original, while the irreplaceable masterpiece itself stays safe for future generations to study.

How Lascaux IV recreates the whole cave

Lascaux IV, opened in December 2016, is the most ambitious cave replica ever built. Designed by the Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta and set into the hillside below the real cave, it reproduces the entire Lascaux cave at full scale — not just a gallery or two, but the whole sequence of chambers, from the Hall of the Bulls through the Nave, the Shaft and the engraved galleries. Specialist artists and 3D-imaging teams worked from precise laser scans of the original to recreate the rock surfaces, the contours and every painted and engraved line, then reproduced the paintings using techniques close to the originals. The result is kept cool and dimly lit, so that walking through it feels uncannily like being inside the cave itself.

Around the cave replica, the International Centre for Cave Art adds what the original never could: workshop galleries that let you examine the art up close, a 3D cinema, and interactive exhibits that place Lascaux in the wider story of Ice-Age art and human creativity. A tablet companion guides you through the cave in your own language. The visit therefore does two things at once — it gives you the emotional experience of standing inside Lascaux, and it explains how and why our ancestors painted, making it far richer than a simple cave tour. Earlier replicas exist too: Lascaux II, opened in 1983, reproduces two of the most famous galleries and still operates nearby, but Lascaux IV is the complete, modern flagship.

What you'll see: the Hall of the Bulls and beyond

The undisputed highlight is the Hall of the Bulls, a rotunda whose curving white walls are covered with great painted aurochs (wild cattle), horses and stags in black, ochre and red. One aurochs stretches more than five metres — the largest animal figure in any known cave art — and the animals seem to move around you as the light catches them. From there the visit continues through the Axial Gallery, rich with horses and a famous 'upside-down' falling horse, then the Passage, the Nave with its frieze of swimming stags and the celebrated 'Crossed Bison', and the deep Shaft with its rare and enigmatic scene of a bird-headed man, a bison and a rhinoceros.

Across the whole cave there are roughly 600 painted and drawn figures and nearly 1,500 engravings — close to 6,000 images in total. Almost all are animals or abstract signs; human figures are extraordinarily rare, which makes the scene in the Shaft all the more striking. What unites them is a confidence and beauty that overturned 19th- and 20th-century assumptions about 'primitive' prehistoric people. At Lascaux IV every one of these galleries is recreated, so you experience the complete narrative of the cave rather than the fragments seen in earlier partial replicas.

How ticketing and timed entry work

Lascaux IV admits visitors in timed slots, and tickets are time-stamped for a specific day and entry time. This protects the quality of the visit — groups enter the cave replica with a guide at set times — but it also means the most popular slots, especially in summer and during French school holidays, sell out, sometimes days ahead. Booking in advance is the only reliable way to secure the day and time you want; arriving on spec in high season often means a long wait or no entry that day. Whichever way you book, you must arrive at least 20 minutes before your slot to check in and join your group.

We book and hold your chosen timed slot, issue your ticket promptly, and you simply skip the ticket-office queue and go straight in at your time. Our adult ticket covers everyone aged 13 and over; we also offer a reduced-rate child ticket for ages 5 to 12, and children under 5 enter free with no ticket needed. Our service fee is disclosed inline at checkout, the price you see is the price you pay, and there is no foreign-exchange markup. If your plans change, reply to your confirmation email and our concierge team will help where the operator's rules allow.

When is the best time to visit Lascaux IV?

Lascaux IV is busiest in July and August and during French school holidays, when timed slots fill quickly and the centre is at its most crowded. The shoulder months of May, June and September are the sweet spot — pleasant Dordogne weather, the surrounding Vézère valley and Sarlat at their best, and easier slot availability. Spring and autumn also pair well with the region's many other prehistoric sites and châteaux. Because entry is by reserved slot rather than open admission, the key is simply to book ahead for the date you want, then choose a time that suits your day.

Within a day, early-morning and late-afternoon slots tend to be calmer than the midday peak, and an early slot leaves the rest of the day free for the Vézère valley. Unlike outdoor monuments, Lascaux IV is comfortable in any weather — cool inside in summer heat and a perfect rainy-day option — so weather matters less here than at open-air sites. If you are touring the Dordogne for several days, base yourself in Sarlat or Montignac and book your Lascaux IV slot for the first clear morning, leaving flexibility to fit the region's other caves around it.

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How to get to Lascaux IV

Lascaux IV sits on the edge of Montignac-Lascaux in the Dordogne, deep in the Vézère valley, and the practical reality is that a car makes the visit far easier. From Sarlat-la-Canéda it is about 30 minutes by car (26 km); from Périgueux about 45 minutes (50 km); and from Bordeaux roughly two hours (about 190 km) via the A89 motorway. There is free parking at the centre. Public transport is limited: there is no station at Montignac itself, and rail journeys route via stations such as Le Buisson, Condat-Le Lardin or Brive with an onward taxi, so most international visitors hire a car for the Dordogne.

If you are not driving, the realistic options are a taxi from the nearest railhead or an organised day tour, some of which combine Lascaux IV with other Vézère valley sites. The region rewards a few days: Montignac and Sarlat both make good bases with restaurants and hotels, and Lascaux IV is within easy reach of other great prehistoric sites — the National Museum of Prehistory and the shelters at Les Eyzies, the cave of Font-de-Gaume, and Rouffignac — most of which also require advance booking. We can advise on routes and timing for the wider Vézère valley when you book.

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Combining Lascaux IV with the Vézère valley

Lascaux IV is the flagship of one of the richest concentrations of prehistoric art on Earth. The surrounding Vézère valley holds the cluster of caves and rock shelters inscribed together by UNESCO in 1979, and many can be linked into a few days of Ice-Age discovery. Font-de-Gaume near Les Eyzies is one of the very few caves with original polychrome paintings still open to the public, though on strict, limited tickets that must be booked well ahead; Les Combarelles and Rouffignac (the 'cave of a hundred mammoths') add engravings and a little underground train; and the National Museum of Prehistory at Les Eyzies sets the whole region in context.

Beyond the caves, the Périgord Noir around Sarlat is one of the most beautiful corners of France — a landscape of golden-stone villages, châteaux, and the famous markets and cuisine of the Dordogne. Many visitors build a trip of three or four days around Lascaux IV, mixing prehistoric sites with the medieval town of Sarlat, the gardens of Marqueyssac, and a boat trip on the Dordogne river. Because Lascaux IV is a timed, indoor visit, it anchors the itinerary well: book your slot first, then arrange the open-air and weather-dependent sights around it.

Frequently asked questions