Travel Guide Meyrueis

Ideally situated between the schistose Cévennes and the limestone causses, Meyrueis ("in the middle of the streams") is one of the southern gateways to Lozère. This intermediate position between the Languedoc plain and the Auvergne mountains made it a very active center for a long time. The Romans probably built a castrum here and, around the year 1000, the lords of Sauve, to whom the land belonged, donated it to the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert; after the installation of a settlement of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, the town was divided into two parishes.Prosperous, its fairs were dedicated to local production: cereals and livestock, woollen cloth, leather and, from the 15th century onwards, felt hats, sold throughout the Cévennes; the region's muleteers could be seen there. The town fortified itself, but was not spared by the Hundred Years' War. The most serious troubles that left their deepest mark on the little town were religious in nature: the Protestant faith found fertile ground here, to the point where the entire town declared itself for the Reformed religion; it restored its fortifications and set about resisting, a Calvinist bastion facing the Catholic causses. In the second half of the 19th century, industrialization and the development of transport routes left the area behind, and the rural exodus took its toll, until a man named Martel put it on the tourist map.