Gévaudan

Gévaudan is the historic region in south-central France that formed the core of the old province of Gévaudan, part of Languedoc under the Ancien Régime, roughly corresponding to today's Lozère department and adjacent areas. The area lies in the Massif Central, with the Margeride plateau and surrounding lowlands, and was characterized by rural communities, forests, and rugged terrain.

The name Gévaudan is associated especially with the Beast of Gévaudan, a predatory animal or animals that attacked civilians in the mid-1760s in the Gévaudan area. From 1764 to 1767, numerous killings were reported, predominantly targeting women and children. The scale of the killings caused alarm in the kingdom, prompting a royal inquiry and a series of hunts led by local and royal authorities, eventually followed by a purported killing of the beast in 1767. The exact identity of the predator(s) remains debated; some accounts describe a large wolf or wolf-like canid, while other interpretations have suggested multiple animals or hybrid forms. Modern scholarship often treats the episodes as possibly involving more than one predator and emphasizes the role of deteriorating forest habitats, human settlement patterns, and fear.

The affair left a lasting impression on regional memory and French folklore. It has been the subject of numerous works of literature, film, and popular culture, contributing to broader discussions about wolves, wilderness, and 18th-century science. Today, Gévaudan survives as a historical and cultural reference within the Lozère department and the broader region known for its landscapes and rural heritage.