the recent excavations carried out on the layout of the TGV with Bourbousson, in the west of the commune, showed signs of human frequentation as of the Neolithic era (+ 2500 years before J.C.) and the installation of four domestic units in ground architecture and of wood around a central surface concentrating three pit-silos and an attic on posts which one could date from the middle of the fifth century before J.C.Selon the local historians of the end of the XIXe century of which Pasteur Eugene Arnaud is most representative, a tower of guet would have risen with the site of the current Tower at the time Roman. Nothing today makes it possible to confirm this assumption rather called into question by the most recent work. At all events, it is certain that, so remainders of Roman villas were found on the site of Crest where passed the Roman way connecting Valence to Italy, the important establishment of the Gallo-Roman time is, with three kilometers in the east of Crest current, Augusta, today Aouste-on-Sye.

The Tower of Crest, 900 years of history

Higher keep of France, high 52 meters, the Tower of Crest is the guardian of one of the rare doors of Préalpes drômoises. Its construction starts in XIIè century. She is in the beginning the major component of a vast fortress which dominates the town of Crest. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Tower is in the middle of the fights between two lords who dispute his possession. From 1419, it becomes property of Kings de France who concede it with various families of which Grimaldi, princes de Monaco. Concerned of the importance of the fortress, Louis XIII orders dismantling in 1633 of it, and only the Tower escapes the destruction. The Tower of Crest is used then as prison until the XIXe century and becomes national property after the Revolution. They are only in 1988, hundred years after its classification under the Historic buildings, that the Town of Crest buys the Tower.

Turn of Crest, Open all the year, 04 75 76 61 14

Natural reserve of Ramières of the Valley of Drome, Open all the year - Forest of Saou, Open all the year