Urbex in Clermont-Ferrand has a distinctive face: a city sitting at the foot of the Puy de Dome, surrounded by forgotten chateaux, frozen holiday camps and villages emptied by the rural exodus. The city centre itself has little to offer: the big sites people usually mention - the Sabourin sanatorium, the Chateau de Montmorin - are now an architecture school or a museum. The real playground is in the Puy-de-Dome department and the whole Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region, where our map lists thousands of geolocated spots.
For this article we picked 3 places that are genuinely abandoned and still standing in 2026, each verified one by one: a 19th-century chateau overrun by vegetation, a concrete holiday camp closed for more than ten years, and a deserted medieval village nestled in the Dolore gorges. No demolished spots, no renovated site passed off as a ruin. Under each entry, an "Add to my map" button saves the GPS coordinates to your personal account, for free and with no credit card.
The queries urbex Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dome urbex map, abandoned places Clermont-Ferrand, urbex spot Auvergne, urbex around Clermont and urban exploration Puy-de-Dome all point to the same reality: an aristocratic, social and rural heritage that history set aside - family bankruptcies, the end of the great holiday camps, the rural exodus - and that photographers, urbexers and historians are rediscovering today. This guide gives you each site's dated history, its legal status and its real dangers, before handing you its coordinates.
Free Clermont-Ferrand urbex: why Urbex Maps changes the game
Before the spots, a word on what makes this guide different. Most sites that talk about free urbex in Clermont-Ferrand put "free" in the title, then redirect you to a paid forum or a closed Telegram group, with anonymised places and unverifiable coordinates. Here the promise is concrete: under each place, an "Add to my map" button sends the GPS coordinates to your personal account, with no subscription and no credit card.
Behind the map is a community of more than 40,000 explorers, active since 2021. Every coordinate is checked at least twice - by the contributor who submits it, then by a regional moderator who confirms the spot still exists and has not been walled up or renovated. The places offered in this article are part of that catalogue; the rest of the thousands of French spots are unlocked through packs that fund the moderation and field verification.
One reminder before you set off: urbex is not illegal in itself, but entering private property without permission is trespassing (article 226-4 of the French Penal Code, up to one year in prison and a 15,000 euro fine). We document these places for their history; we never encourage breaking in. Helmet, torch, ankle boots and caution on the floors: most of the spots below carry real collapse risks.
1. Chateau de Leobard - the 19th-century manor swallowed by trees (Isserteaux)
About twenty kilometres south-east of Clermont-Ferrand, in the village of Isserteaux (between Billom and the Livradois), the Chateau de Leobard - sometimes spelled "Leobart" - is a bourgeois manor built in 1863, said to have replaced an older building. The commune's history page describes it with its red-lettered inscriptions on the walls, a reference to Saint Leobard. Turrets, stone facades and a large park: it is the archetypal forgotten Auvergne chateau, today an empty shell reclaimed by vegetation.
Its abandoned state has been documented for a long time: the manor appears on old postcards (the "L'Auvergne Illustree" series, early 20th century, now in the public domain) and its dilapidated interior - faded frescoes, ruined furniture, collapsed ceilings - has appeared in several photographic explorations. It is a good example of widening the radius into the department: around Clermont, chateau urbex is far richer than in the city centre.
Private property: the interior is not accessible without permission. An important point to know - a chateau is currently listed for sale in the same village, which means a change of ownership is possible and the place could eventually leave the urbex world; check before you go. Standard risks of an old, unmaintained building: unstable floors, falling stone, weakened roof structure. Leobard is the most iconic abandoned chateau in the Clermont ring.
2. The Clichy holiday camp - the concrete liner of the Sancy (Murat-le-Quaire)
About thirty kilometres south-west of Clermont, above La Bourboule, in the Sancy massif and the Volcans d'Auvergne regional nature park, the former holiday camp of the City of Clichy ("Clichy-la-Garenne") is one of the most spectacular spots in the Puy-de-Dome. Built in 1958, this large centre with its main rotunda building - an almost futuristic look for the time - hosted children from the Paris region. It has been closed since 2012.
The site, owned by the City of Clichy, covers about 5 hectares and nearly 4,000 sq m of buildings (rotunda building, gatekeeper's lodge, garage). France Bleu and France 3 described it with its "abandoned-barracks look", vegetation invading the terraces and furniture still in place. Put up for auction unsuccessfully in 2016, 2018, then on Agorastore in 2019 (starting price 100,000 euros), it has, as far as we know, been neither sold, demolished nor converted to date - but that status can change, so check before you go.
Closed public property: access is not authorised. The risks are those of a large concrete building abandoned for more than ten years: degraded floors and false ceilings, broken glass roofs, weakened staircases. Worth seeing above all for its architecture - a concrete rotunda planted in the middle of the volcanoes, one of the most photogenic abandoned backdrops in Auvergne.
3. The abandoned village of Issandolanges - a thousand years of ruins (Novacelles)
For this third spot, we openly widen the radius: Issandolanges sits about 57 km south-east of Clermont-Ferrand (commune of Novacelles, in the Livradois-Forez), at the edge of our perimeter - but the detour is worth it. It is a deserted medieval village, nestled on a rocky spur in a meander of the Dolore. The village was inhabited until the early 20th century; its last resident left in 1924.
What remains are genuine ruins in open country: a bread oven, the former Saint-Roch chapel (an 18-by-8-metre nave with a cul-de-four choir), the fortified castle site and an old mill abandoned along the river. Unlike the first two spots, this is not a "wild" site: the castle motte has been partly consolidated since the 1990s, a waymarked trail (a loop of about 11.7 km from Novacelles) leads to it, and occasional guided tours are run there. So we present it for what it is - an accessible heritage site reachable on foot - rather than as a fake secret.
Access from Novacelles: cross the bridge near the village then follow the road along the Dolore. The terrain is steep and slippery in wet weather; good shoes are essential. Issandolanges perfectly illustrates our approach: when a city does not have five genuine spots at its core, we widen the radius rather than sell you renovated sites. Find every spot in the department on the Puy-de-Dome map.
FAQ - Urbex Clermont-Ferrand
Is urbex legal in Clermont-Ferrand?
Urban exploration is not illegal in itself, but entering private property without permission is trespassing (article 226-4 of the French Penal Code). Most spots in the Puy-de-Dome are private or public property: we document them for their history, without ever encouraging break-ins. For more, read our guide is urbex legal in France.
Where can I find other abandoned places around Clermont-Ferrand?
Our map lists thousands of spots across the whole Puy-de-Dome and the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region. You can add the three places in this article to your personal map for free via the button under each entry, then unlock the rest through our regional packs. To go further, see also our top 10 abandoned places in Auvergne.
Do I need special gear for these spots?
For the Chateau de Leobard and the Clichy camp, a helmet, torch and ankle boots are essential because of the unstable floors. For Issandolanges, what you mainly need is good hiking shoes (steep, slippery terrain). Our urbex gear guide covers the essentials to start safely.
Why are there so few spots in the heart of Clermont-Ferrand?
Because the major "urbex" sites in the centre have been redeveloped: the Sabourin sanatorium has become the national school of architecture, the Chateau de Montmorin is a tourist site with a museum and guided tours, the Brassac-les-Mines pits are turned into a museum. Rather than sell you these places as ruins, we widen the radius towards genuinely abandoned sites in the department. The same logic applies to other big cities: see for example our guide urbex in Lyon.
Conclusion: Clermont-Ferrand, an exploration that plays out across the department
From the Chateau de Leobard to the ruins of Issandolanges by way of the concrete liner of the Sancy, Clermont urbex tells the story of a forgotten Auvergne: the end of the great families, the disappearance of the popular holiday camps and the rural exodus that emptied whole villages. These places are not stage sets: they are open-air history books, fragile, to be explored with respect and without damage. Add them to your map, and carry on your exploration with our top 10 abandoned places in Auvergne or the free urbex map.