Celles was originally a traditional farming village, with its economy based on vineyards, olive groves, and livestock.

The village had around 80 inhabitants before its evacuation in the 1960s to make way for a lake.

The "Ghost Village" Era (1970s–Present)

For decades, Celles remained a deserted hamlet, its empty buildings covered in graffiti and slowly decaying.

The Village That Wasn’t Drowned

When the artificial Lac du Salagou was created in the 1960s, officials evacuated Celles, expecting it to be fully submerged. But in a twist of fate, the water stopped just meters short of the village, leaving its houses eerily intact but abandoned. Today, it’s a "ghost village" with crumbling buildings covered in graffiti, surrounded by the lake’s red-earth landscape—like a scene from a post-apocalyptic film!

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