Underground onlyTourist office visit
Four monuments, with a guide
- Length
- 45 minutes to 1 hour
- Group
- Up to 50
- Booking
- Reservation needed
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Guide · Underground
The Saint-Émilion underground tour and the village walk
Beneath the lanes of the wine village lie a hermit's cave, a painted chapel, catacombs and a church hollowed out of the rock. Here is how a guided visit below ground works and how it fits a day of wine.
Check availabilityfrom $96 · cancel for free
Editorial team, saintemilionwinetasting.comUpdated October 18, 2026about 7 min to read23 sources
In a nutshell
- 01Four monuments
- The tourist office tour covers the hermitage, the Trinity Chapel, the catacombs and the Monolithic Church.1
- 02Guide only
- The Monolithic Church can only be visited with a tourist office guide.2
- 03Length
- About 45 minutes to 1 hour, according to the tourist office.3
- 04Down below
- Cool all year, at around 13°C.4
- 05As a day out
- A full-day tour pairs a 1 hour underground visit with two wineries, from $115.
What lies beneath the village
A Saint-Émilion underground tour takes you into the limestone the village stands on. The tourist office's own tour, Underground Saint-Émilion, currently includes four monuments: Émilion's hermitage, the Trinity Chapel and its medieval paintings, the catacombs and the Monolithic Church.1 Above ground you see honey-colored houses, terraces of vines and steep lanes. Below, you see where the place began, long before anyone thought of it as a wine village.
The church is the centerpiece. It was carved out of a single block of stone and measures 38 m long and 12 m high.5 It was dug at the beginning of the 12th century, and from the street you first notice it by its bell tower, 68 m high.6 The wine council calls it the biggest church of its kind in Europe.7 Standing in front of its plain façade, it is hard to guess the size of the hall that opens up behind it.
Being inside changes how you read the village. The space was not assembled stone by stone; it was hollowed out of the hillside, and you feel the mass of rock over your head. Give your eyes a minute to adjust to the dim light, listen to how voices carry, and look closely at the walls. Then step back out into the daylight and look up at the tower again: the scale of the work suddenly makes sense.
The full day
Village, undergrounds and two wineries
-
Start
Bordeaux tourist office
Leave by coach from 12 cours du 30 juillet, near the Quinconces tram stop.
-
About 1 hour
Coach to the vineyards
The ride out to the first estate.
-
75 minutes
First winery
A visit to the estate with a tasting.
-
2 hours
Second winery
Another visit and tasting; lunch is at your own cost, as the listing says it is not included.
-
1 hour
Guided underground visit
The hidden side of the village, with a guide.
-
1.5 hours
Free time in the village
Walk the lanes at your own pace before the coach back.
Émilion, the hermit behind the name
The story starts with a monk. According to the tourist office, Émilion is said to have died in 767, after spending the last seventeen years of his life in his hermitage.8 His cave is one of the four stops of the underground visit, and it is the quietest of them: a small natural shelter rather than a grand room. Leave room for questions there, since this is where the village's own name begins and where the legends gather.
After his death, local people turned his memory into architecture. The wine council relates that, in homage to the hermit, they excavated the rock just above his cave in several campaigns and carved out a basilica, which is today's Monolithic Church.9 The cave and the church are neighbors in the same rock, and a guided visit links them as one story, from a lone hermit to a community that dug a church out of a hill.
The Trinity Chapel adds color to all that stone. The tourist office praises its superb frescos from the 14th century, and they are a welcome change after the bare rock of the larger rooms.10 The catacombs complete the set of four. Ask your guide to point out the details in the paintings; they are easy to miss in low light, and a few minutes of looking closely is worth more than a dozen quick photos.
The four stops
What you see underground
| Monument | What it is | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Émilion's hermitage | The monk's cave | He is said to have died in 767 |
| Trinity Chapel | A chapel in the rock | Frescos from the 14th century |
| Catacombs | Underground burial site | Part of the same tour |
| Monolithic Church | Carved from one block | 38 m long, 12 m high |
| Bell tower | Marks the church above | 68 m high |
The four monuments of the tourist office tour, plus the tower above them.181056
Three ways in
Below and around the village
Underground only
Whole dayVillage and undergrounds
Full day from Bordeaux
- Length
- 8 hours
- Price
- from $115
- Cancel
- Up to 2 days ahead
Sold on this siteHalf-day village tour
Village walk and château
- Length
- 4 to 4.5 hours
- Price
- from $96
- Village walk
- 75 minutes
Decision helper
Which visit suits you?
Begin with the sight you care about most
Tourist office tour
The church opens only to groups led by a tourist office guide.2
Full-day tour
A 1 hour underground visit and two wineries, from $115.
Half-day tour
75 minutes in the village and a château tasting, from $96.
Underground first
The underground heritage lets you explore under cover.11
Cloître des Cordeliers
Crémant has been made in its old quarries since the 19th century.12
In homage to the hermit, the local people excavated the rock just above his cave in several campaigns and carved out a basilica, which is today’s Monolithic Church.
How the guided visit works
You cannot simply wander in. The Monolithic Church can only be visited as part of a guided tour led by a guide from the tourist office.2 The tour runs every day, all year long, on reservation, with at most 50 people per group.13 The visit itself lasts approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour, which leaves plenty of the day for the vineyards, a long lunch or a tasting in one of the cellars in the village.3
Book ahead. The tourist office strongly recommends advance booking for its guided tours, as places are limited.14 A fixed time also gives shape to the rest of your visit: put the underground slot first on a hot or wet day, and build the tasting, lunch and the walk back to the station or car park around it. If you are on a guided wine tour, ask the operator whether its program includes this visit before you book anything extra.
The guided format is also how you get the stories. Without a guide, the chapel, the catacombs and the church would be impressive but silent rooms; with one, each space finds its place in the village's past, from the hermit to the medieval town above. Stay a moment at the end, when the group thins out, and ask about anything you missed on the way through; a single good answer often ties the four rooms together.
Map
From the Quinconces to the vineyards
Where the half-day tour leaves Bordeaux, the two train stations on the way, and the village and estates around it.
1Monument aux Girondins2Bordeaux Saint-Jean station3Libourne station4Saint-Émilion station5Saint-Émilion village
4Saint-Émilion station6Monolithic Church7Château Saint-Georges Côte Pavie8Château Tour Baladoz and La Croizille
- 1Monument aux Girondins
The meeting point of the half-day tour sold on this site, in Place des Quinconces, and one of its two drop-off points.
In Google Maps ↗ - 2Bordeaux Saint-Jean station
Trains leave here directly for Saint-Émilion station.15
In Google Maps ↗ - 3Libourne station
A stop on the Bordeaux-Paris high-speed line, 7 km from Saint-Émilion.16
In Google Maps ↗ - 4Saint-Émilion station
On the Bordeaux-Sarlat TER line, around 1.5 km from the village.17
In Google Maps ↗ - 5Saint-Émilion village
40 km north-east of Bordeaux, on the hillside north of the Dordogne valley.18
In Google Maps ↗ - 6Monolithic Church
Carved out of the rock, 38 m long and 12 m high, and open only on a guided tour.52
In Google Maps ↗ - 7Château Saint-Georges Côte Pavie
A Grand Cru Classé in the 2022 classification, with a 1 hour visit and tasting bookable on GetYourGuide.19
In Google Maps ↗ - 8Château Tour Baladoz and La Croizille
Two neighboring Grands Crus Classés, 3 km from the village, where the picnic visit and the short tasting visit take place.1920
In Google Maps ↗
Checklist
Before you go below ground
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Video
Inside the medieval village of Saint-Émilion
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Above ground: walking the old village
A Saint-Émilion walking tour above ground is the natural partner of the underground visit. The streets are cobbled, sometimes steep and uneven, and the tourist office recommends comfortable flat shoes.21 Expect short climbs between the upper and lower parts of the village, steps where you least expect them and views over the rooftops at every turn. Walk slowly, look up at the façades, and leave time to stop for a glass between monuments.
Food and wine belong to the walk too. The village has made its own macaroons since the Ursuline sisters set up their convent there in 1620.22 Crémant de Bordeaux has been made in the heart of the village since the 19th century, including in the underground quarries of the former Franciscan monastery at the Cloître des Cordeliers.12 A cellar like that is a second, more relaxed way to see the rock beneath the streets, glass in hand.
The half-day tour sold on this site includes a guided walk of 75 minutes through the UNESCO-listed village, along with a guided visit and tasting at a Grand Cru Classé château. Its listing does not mention the underground monuments. If the Monolithic Church matters to you, add the tourist office visit on another day, traveling out by train and booking a slot in advance, and keep the guided tour for the wine and the walk.
A full day that includes the undergrounds
One GetYourGuide listing on the Bordeaux side builds a whole day around the village and its depths. It leaves from the Bordeaux tourist office at 12 cours du 30 juillet by coach, about 1 hour each way, visits two wineries with tastings, then gives you a guided underground visit of 1 hour and 1.5 hours of free time in the village; lunch is not included, so you pay for your own. It starts from $115 and lasts 8 hours.
Read its terms closely. Free cancellation on that day runs up to 2 days in advance, not the 24 hours of the half-day tour sold on this site. Its listing also says it is not accessible to people with limited mobility. It is rated 4.46 from 104 reviews, while the half-day tour sold here holds 4.77 from 1,733. Weigh those numbers against what you want most from the day, and against how long you are happy to spend on a coach.
For a shorter day with a guided look at the village, the half-day tour from the Cité du Vin spends 75 minutes on a guided tour of Saint-Émilion with a food tasting, after a winery stop, from $70. That listing does not mention the underground monuments, while the full day above names all four. Check the day's program with the operator when you book, and keep the tourist office tour as the sure way to see all four monuments.
Dressing for cool rock and steep lanes
The underground monuments and certain cellars stay at around 13°C, and the tourist office advises bringing a warm layer.4 On a summer afternoon that is a sharp change from the sunny square outside, and the chill reaches you within minutes of standing still. A thin sweater or a light jacket in your bag solves it, and it takes no room. Add a small bottle of water for the lanes, which climb more than they look.
Rain is no reason to cancel. The tourist office notes that the underground heritage and historic monuments let you explore the village under cover when it rains.11 On a wet morning, book the underground visit first and keep a cellar or a tasting for after it. The cobbles get slippery in the wet, and shoes with some grip make the walk between monuments far more comfortable and a lot safer on the steep sections.
Access is the real limit. Not all of the village's streets and monuments are wheelchair accessible, and an adapted map shows the most accessible routes.23 The full-day tour with the undergrounds is not open to people with limited mobility, and the half-day tour sold here is not wheelchair accessible. Contact the tourist office before booking if steps or uneven floors are a concern for anyone in your group.
Book your seats
A village walk and a classified cellar await.
Choose a morning or an afternoon slot; plans can still change until 24 hours ahead.
You ask,we answer.
Can I visit the Monolithic Church on my own?
No. It can only be visited on a guided tour led by a guide from the tourist office.2
How long does the underground visit take?
About 45 minutes to 1 hour. The tourist office gives that range for its Underground Saint-Émilion tour.3
What does the underground visit include?
Four monuments. The hermitage, the Trinity Chapel with its paintings, the catacombs and the Monolithic Church.1
Do I need to book?
Yes, ahead if you can. The tourist office strongly recommends advance booking, as places are limited.14
Is it cold underground?
Cool, around 13°C. Bring a warm layer, even on a hot day in the village above you.4
Does the half-day wine tour go underground?
Its listing does not say so. It lists a guided village walk and a château visit with a tasting.
Is the church wheelchair accessible?
Ask before booking. Not all streets and monuments in the village are accessible; an adapted map shows the easier routes.23
Sources
The sources for this guide
- 1Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisFAQ - Saint-Émilion Tourist Office↩
- 2Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisFAQ - Saint-Émilion Tourist Office↩
- 3Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisFAQ - Saint-Émilion Tourist Office↩
- 4Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisFAQ - Saint-Émilion Tourist Office↩
- 5Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisHistory↩
- 6Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisHistory↩
- 7Conseil des Vins de Saint-ÉmilionTourism in Saint-Emilion↩
- 8Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisHistory↩
- 9Conseil des Vins de Saint-ÉmilionThe history of Saint-Émilion winegrowing↩
- 10Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisUnderground Saint-Emilion↩
- 11Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisFAQ - Saint-Émilion Tourist Office↩
- 12Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisHistory↩
- 13Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisUnderground Saint-Emilion↩
- 14Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisFAQ - Saint-Émilion Tourist Office↩
- 15Conseil des Vins de Saint-ÉmilionPrepare your visit in the Saint-Emilion vineyard↩
- 16Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisAccess and parking↩
- 17Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisFAQ - Saint-Émilion Tourist Office↩
- 18Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisSaint-Emilion tourist office↩
- 19Conseil des Vins de Saint-ÉmilionThe 2022 classification↩
- 20Conseil des Vins de Saint-ÉmilionThe 2022 classification↩
- 21Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisFAQ - Saint-Émilion Tourist Office↩
- 22Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisHistory↩
- 23Office de Tourisme du Grand Saint-ÉmilionnaisFAQ - Saint-Émilion Tourist Office↩
