GAVARNIE

mountain village and valley on the approach to the natural amphitheatre known as the Cirque de Gavarnie, in Hautes-Pyrnes dpartement, Midi-Pyrnes rgion, southwestern France. Gavarnie lies in the central Pyrenees, on the French side of the Franco-Spanish frontier. The village, at an elevation of 4,452 feet (1,357 m) in the valley of the Gave (torrent) de Pau, was a resting place in medieval times for pilgrims traveling to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, which is one of the chief shrines of Christendom. The Cirque de Gavarnie, about 2.5 miles (4 km) south of the village, is described by the 19th-century French writer Victor Hugo as a mountain and a wall at the same time . . . the colosseum of nature. From its floor, glacially eroded rock walls rise to about 5,000 feet (1,500 m). It has three conspicuous terraces in which precipitous faces are succeeded upward by steep slopes of ice and snow. The Grande Cascade waterfall plunges about 1,400 feet (425 m) from the eastern side. Above the amphitheatre are the high mountain summits of the Franco-Spanish frontier ridge, rising to nearly 11,000 feet (3,350 m). Also conspicuous is the deep cleft known as the Brche de Roland. Nearby is the Grotte Casteret, containing a frozen underground stream. Pop. (1990) 178.