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Accueil > Rocamadour : great site of Midi-Pyrenees
Retour Rocamadour : great site of Midi-Pyrenees
Rocamadour : great site of Midi-Pyrenees
For nearly a thousand years, the narrow, lonely canyon of the Alzou has been home to a cluster of buildings clinging to the rock half way up the sheer cliffs; and from this improbable spot, a powerful call has gone out, drawing millions of the faithful to the shrine of the Black Virgin of Rocamadour.
Rocamadour : the magic of nature...
From very early times, a chapel dedicated to Our Lady existed here, looked after by a few Benedictine monks, but it was only after the discovery of the perfectly-preserved body of Saint Amadour in 1166 that a pilgrimage began to develop.
This flourished until the 15th C. and brought great wealth, which saw the development of the monastic buildings (now gone), the shrines, seven in all, the village itself, amenities such as a pilgrim hospital, water cisterns, etc., plus the essential defences: castle, ramparts and fortified gates, of which several are intact or still easily visible.
The 16th C. Wars of Religion saw the desecration of the shrines and the end of the great era of pilgrimage; but the 19th C. saw a keen revival of interest in both religious practice and in mediaeval art, and much work was done to restore the pilgrimage and its setting to their former glory.
Here, the magic of Nature and the cunning art of Man go hand-in-hand, blending in total harmony so that it is sometimes hard to tell one from the other.