Paris1972-Versailles2003

I continue my journey in and around the pink city of Toulouse, one of  my favorite in my belle France. On our way back, we stop by Rocamadour , and finally was able to find me pictures in my cd rom vault to show in my blog for you and me, This is great wonderful village and great family times. Let me tell you about it bear with me on the next posts, This time let me tell you of the sanctuary Notre Dame of Rocamadour !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.

The Village of Rocamadour of about 610 inhabitants is located in the department of Lot No 46, in the Occitanie region of my belle France. It belongs to the Dordogne valley, It is about 61 km from Cahors, 53 km from Brive-la-Gaillarde, 163 km from Toulouse (from where we visit taking finally the D32), 219 km from Bordeaux, 525 km from Versailles, and 588 km from my current home, You reach it easily from the A20 highway sortie/exit 56,

The Sanctuary Notre-Dame of Rocamadour is not just a place that we visit but a place where we are visited by the Virgin Mary. She transforms lives there, fills them with the love of God, performs miracles, fulfills prayers and gives “firm hope like the rock” The Notre-Dame de Rocamadour sanctuary, whose scope is international, is under the responsibility of the Bishop of Cahors,

From the hamlet of the Hospitalet leaves the path, called “holy path”, which the pilgrims take to arrive at the sanctuary: it descends into the Alzou valley to the lower city, where the foot of the ‘staircase of two hundred sixteen steps which leads to the sanctuary. Dailed with white stone, the forecourt occupies the center of the sanctuary, the chapels being arranged in the periphery of the space fitted out by the backfill of the monks in the 12C. It is built on two levels: the first is the one where the staircase arrives through the holy door, and where the tunnel leaves, known as “Porte Saint-Martial”, which allows you to go out under the basilica. The second level is that, a little above, which gives access to the basilica, the Notre-Dame and the Saint-Michel Chapels. It consists of two platforms serving one the basilica, the other the two chapels, linked together by a balcony and at the lower level of the parvis by a staircase.

The Basilica Saint-Sauveur of Rocamadour was built from the 11C to the 13C at an era of transition between Romanesque art and Gothic art . The lower church of the 12C is a crypt which once housed the relics of Saint Amadour. Its quadripartite vault is supported by a large arch-double. Access to the basilica is done by a staircase from the second level of the city’s forecourt. Its two naves are leaning on the west side to the walls of the cliff. The Notre-Dame Chapel is attached to the southern wall. A wooden mezzanine is an addition of the 19C which was built in order to accommodate a large number of pilgrims. In the choir, a low relief of the 18C in gilded wood of the altar representing the Assumption is surmounted by a Christ in polychrome wood of the 16C. A new built -shaped boat organ was inaugurated in November 2013. The relics of Saint Amadour were reinstalled in the right apse in 2016.

The crypt is located on the side of the Alzou canyon cliff within the Notre-Dame sanctuary opposite the pilgrims’ staircase, on the esplanade, another leads to the lower church or Saint-Amadour crypt. From the 12C, Rocamadour had a Roman-Gothic Virgin in a small sanctuary, the Sainte-Marie or Notre Dame Church from 1152 to 1188, to develop the Marian pilgrimage, in particular by attracting pilgrims who converge on Compostela. Rocamadour and Quercy were at that time in the sphere of influence of the Plantagenêt. Henri II Plantagenêt came to Rocamadour in 1159 and 1170. In 1166, a body in perfect condition of nearby conservation was miraculously discovered by digging the tomb of a deceased. Attributed to Saint Amadour, a hermit who would be none other than Zache Disciple of Jesus, he is deposited in the current crypt. Miracles accumulate: 126 are authenticated and registered in 1172. Pilgrims come from all of Europe. In 1244, Saint Louis and his Mother Blanche de Castille came to pray to Notre-Dame. In 1562, during the wars of religion, the Huguenots looted and burn the sanctuary, not sparing the relics of the saint , Reduced to a local dimension in the following centuries, the periclite pilgrimage and the revolutionary minutes noted the ruin of the sanctuary which was not restored by the initiative of the bishops of Cahors only from 1842. The crypt is a simple single nave from the 12C with a flat bottom of pure romance, without transept or apse, divided into two vaulted spans with diagonal arcs by diagonal arcs by a huge arch-double. The angles are occupied by columns surmounted by spanned capitals. Built at the Romanesque time in order to enlarge the terrace and then support the new buildings, it was not very reworked in 1858 the popular legend wants the Holy Hermit Amadour to be the zache of the New Testament which would have brought back from the Holy Land the statue of the Black Virgin sculpted by Saint Luke ,the Evangelist. It was his remains that would have been found intact nearby in the 12C during the digging of a grave. It could be one of these saints hermitted established in the Alzou canyon from the 7C, and whose cave could have been the first chapel chapel of the site. Popular piety gave him the name of Amator, “lover”, “friend” of God and Mary, very typical of courteous literature of the time. Since 2016, after the solemn ceremonies that have marked the 850th anniversary of the discovery of the body of Saint Amadour, the relics are again exhibited in the basilica to the veneration of the faithful in a reliquary.

The town of Rocamadour on its heritage :https://mairierocamadour.fr/decouverte/histoire-et-patrimoine/

The official Sanctuary of Notre Dame of Rocamadour :https://www.sanctuairerocamadour.com/

The local Dordogne valley tourist office on Rocamadour: https://www.visit-dordogne-valley.co.uk/discover/cultural-heritage/villages-to-visit/rocamadour

The Lot dept 46 tourist office on Rocamadour : https://www.tourisme-lot.com/rocamadour/visiter-rocamadour

There you go folks, you will love your walks here, we did and always looking forward to be back, eventually. Again, hope you enjoy this post on the sanctuary Notre Dame of Rocamadour !!! as I.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!