Romans

karst spring for drinking water

Celts

and the French enclosed it in a circular stone rim with an amphitheatre and used it as a public wash house in the 1700s.

women wondered what lurked at the bottom. According to one legend, a deadly serpent patrolled the well’s base. According to others, the spring was a portal to new worlds.

In an effort to solve this age-old mystery, two professional divers descended into the limestone rocks’ tight passages in hopes of reaching its source in 1974. While navigating the spring’s twisting, tapering chasms, they perished. In 1996, the town hired another diver to attempt the descent. He also died.

Then, last October Tonnarre’s mayor hired professional diver Pierre-Éric Deseigne.

he descended more than 70m underground, venturing 370 total metres from the cavity’s entrance – all while filming his expedition. While Deseigne explored territory that no-one had ever seen before, he still was unable to locate the spring’s source

The Great Hall of the Hospital of the 13th cent., now used as a Chapel, is the only part remaining of the noble founda- tion of Marguerite de Bourgogne, .Queen of Sicily. It is remarkable lor its great length, its simplicity, the ex- tent of its timber roof, and the gnomon (1786) on its floor. A sitting statue, marble, of Marguerite, in the cos- timie of her time, adorns her tomb in the chapel of the Hospital, replacing one destroyed at the Revolution. It was erected by the inhabitants. See the exterior of the Hdtel cT Uzis, in the Rue des Fontenelles. Tonnerre is re- markable for its extensive and beau- tiful avenues of lime-trees. At the foot of the hill rises la Fontaine Fosse Dionne (Fons Dionysi ?), a source so copious that in a few^ yards it is capable of turning mills.

Hand-book for travellers in France [by J. Murray. 1st] 3rd-14th, 16th, 18th ed"

1878.