The Lanterne des Morts is a dramatic monument – it's shaped like a giant rocket – that was built to honour a visit by St Bernard, one of the founders of the Cistercian order, in 1147.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
11.92 MILES
France’s most famous prehistoric cave paintings are at the Grotte de Lascaux, 2km southeast of Montignac. Naturally sealed and protected for millennia, it…
9.95 MILES
This extraordinary cave contains the only original polychrome (as opposed to single-colour) paintings still open to the public. About 14,000 years ago,…
6.09 MILES
The massive ramparts and metre-thick crenellated walls of this quintessential medieval fortress (occupied by the English during the Hundred Years War)…
20.59 MILES
The Sanctuaires are seven beautiful 12th- to 14th-century chapels built into the rock-face and surrounding a central courtyard. You can see worn stones…
13.9 MILES
Hidden in woodland 18km north of Les Eyzies, this tri-level cave is one of the most complex and rewarding to see in the Dordogne. Board an electric train…
5.25 MILES
Horticulture fans won’t want to miss these famous manicured gardens, stretching along a rocky bluff overlooking the Dordogne Valley. Signposted paths lead…
26.19 MILES
Discovered in 1889, the spectacular Gouffre de Padirac features some of France’s spangliest underground caverns. The cave’s navigable river, 103m below…
0.07 MILES
For an introductory French market experience, visit Sarlat’s heavily touristed Saturday market, which takes over the streets around Cathédrale St-Sacerdos…
Nearby Sarlat-la-Canéda attractions
0.02 MILES
Behind the cathedral, the Jardin des Enfeus was Sarlat’s first cemetery. The rocket-shaped Lanterne des Morts may have been built to honour a visit by St…
0.03 MILES
A passage from Cour des Chanoines leads to the Chapelle St-Benoît, aka Chapelle des Pénitents Bleus, a 12th-century Romanesque chapel and the oldest…
0.04 MILES
This attractive medieval courtyard can be reached via an alleyway off rue Tourny or from the Jardin des Enfeus. The passage from Cour des Chanoines leads…
0.04 MILES
Once part of Sarlat’s Cluniac abbey, the original abbey church was built in the 1100s, redeveloped in the early 1500s, and remodelled again in the 1700s,…
0.06 MILES
Appropriate to its name this picturesque medieval courtyard contains a bubbling fountain. You can find it down an alleyway off rue Tourny or reach it from…
0.06 MILES
This striking 16th-century Italian Renaissance–style house opposite Cathédrale St-Sacerdos is the birthplace of writer Étienne de la Boétie (1530–63).
0.07 MILES
For an introductory French market experience, visit Sarlat’s heavily touristed Saturday market, which takes over the streets around Cathédrale St-Sacerdos…
0.09 MILES
Get truffe noir (black truffle) at the winter-morning Marché aux Truffes.