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46-711: The three then become the Navarre Route, passing via the French town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and crossing the Pyrenees and the Spanish border by one path or another to Roncesvalles in the Spanish province of Navarre . Together they serve as the principal pilgrimage route across Spain, known as the Camino francés . The fourth French route, the via Tolosane , crosses the Pyrenees at a different point ( Somport ), becomes

92-441: A monkey park, respectively) and also hosts an annual cheese festival. Outdoor activities and hot air ballooning are popular among visitors. The site's gravity-defying churches and Black Madonna statue remain a spiritual draw for both Catholic pilgrims and for visitors who practice earth-based or New Age religions, being drawn to stories of Rocamadour's "strange energies" and pre-Christian origins. A legend supposed to explain

138-529: A bakery, lists the price of wheat in 1789. The 14th-century red schist Gothic church, Notre-Dame-du-Bout-du-Pont, stands by the Porte d'Espagne. The original was built by Sancho the Strong of Navarre to commemorate the 1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa where Moorish dominance of Spain was undermined. Above the town at the top of the hill is the citadel , remodelled by Vauban in the 17th century. Outside

184-595: A first miracle was announced. The location began to attract pilgrims to the Virgin Mary . The 12th-century book Livre des Miracles written by a monk from the sanctuary illustrates that Rocamadour had already become famous as a place of pilgrimage. In 1159, Henry II of England , husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine , came to Rocamadour to thank the Virgin for her healing. The statue of the Black Madonna dates from

230-658: A gorge above a tributary of the River Dordogne and especially for its historical monuments and its sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary , which for centuries, dating back to the turn of the 12th century, has attracted historical and anonymous pilgrims from many countries, among them kings, bishops and nobles (including Henry II of England , Simon de Montfort , Blanche of Castile and Saint Louis IX of France , Saint Dominic and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux , among other illustrious figures). The town below

276-482: A large market, with sheep and cattle driven into the town. At 5pm, there is a communal game of bare-handed pelote at the fronton . There are large fairs four times a year. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port station is the southern terminus of the railway line from Bayonne through the French Basque Country, along the valley of the river Nive, with several services each day. It is 1 km from the centre of

322-400: A little later. This account, like most other similar legends, does not make its first appearance till long after the age in which the chief actors are deemed to have lived. The name of Amadour occurs in no document previous to the compilation of his Acts, which on careful examination and on an application of the rules of the cursus to the text cannot be judged older than the 12th century. It

368-882: A pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. He was the first non-Hispanic to undertake the pilgrimage, leading a large caravan that included members of the clergy, their staff and servants, various nobles and gentlemen, their retainers and men at arms. The route leaves Le Puy-en-Velay and passes Vals-près-le-Puy , Saint-Christophe-sur-Dolaison , Bains , Saint-Privat-d'Allier , Monistrol-d'Allier , Saugues , and Chanaleilles . The route passes Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole , Aumont-Aubrac , Malbouzon , Rieutort-d'Aubrac , Marchastel , and Nasbinals . The route passes Aubrac , Saint-Chély-d'Aubrac , Saint-Côme-d'Olt , Espalion , Bessuéjouls , Estaing , Golinhac , Espeyrac , Sénergues , Conques , Noailhac , Decazeville , and Livinhac-le-Haut . The route passes through Montredon , Saint-Félix , Figeac , and Béduer . A variant route follows

414-616: A sword was wedged into a crevice and secured by a chain. According to local legend it was a copy of Durandal , the sword wielded by the hero Roland , which he hurled from him after the Battle of Roncevaux Pass to prevent its falling into the hands of the Saracens , and which came to rest in Rocamadour. The sword was reported stolen from the cliff face in June 2024. The interior walls of

460-750: A village, in the Salvate valley near Couzou , were found during work. An oppidum perched on the heights of the Alzou valley, downstream from Tournefeuille, is perhaps linked to the fight of the Gauls against the Roman troops during the Gallic war. The three levels of the village of Rocamadour date from the Middle Ages and reflect the three orders of medieval society: the knights above, linked to religious clerics in

506-474: Is about 50 kilometres (31 mi) by air and 75 kilometres (47 mi) on road away from Pamplona ( Basque : Iruña ), the capital of Upper Navarre , across the Spanish border. The original town at nearby Saint-Jean-le-Vieux was razed to the ground in 1177 by the troops of Richard the Lionheart after a siege. The Kings of Navarre refounded the town on its present site shortly afterwards. The town

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552-672: Is at the heart of the Parc naturel régional des Causses du Quercy  [ de ; fr ] , a regional nature park. Rocamadour is located 36 km NNE of Cahors by road, on the right bank of the Alzou . Rocamadour can be reached by car from the A20 autoroute , or by train: Gare de Rocamadour-Padirac on the Brive-la-Gaillarde–Toulouse (via Capdenac) railway . Rocamadour is served by two regional airports that provide easy access to

598-605: Is close to Ostabat in the Pyrenean foothills. The town is also the old capital of the traditional Basque province of Lower Navarre . Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is also a starting point for the French Way Camino Francés , the most popular option for travelling the Camino de Santiago . It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages of France) Association. The town lies on

644-501: Is now well established that Saint Martial , Amadour's contemporary in the legend, lived in the 3rd not the 1st century, and Rome has never included him among the members of the Apostolic College . The mention, therefore, of St Martial in the "Acts of St Amadour" would alone suffice, even if other proof were wanting, to prove them doubtful. The untrustworthiness of the legend has led some recent authors to suggest that Amadour

690-534: The Abbaye de Flaran (off the route), Montréal-du-Gers , Lauraët , Lagraulet-du-Gers , Eauze , Manciet , Nogaro , Barcelonne-du-Gers . The route passes Aire-sur-l'Adour , after which hikers and pilgrims can pass by either Pécorade and Geaune or by Miramont-Sensacq . Those two routes converge once more at Pimbo . The route passes Arzacq-Arraziguet , Vignes , Louvigny , Uzan , Pomps , Arthez-de-Béarn , Sauvelade , Navarrenx , Charre , Aroue to reach

736-554: The Aragonese Way when it enters Spain, and joins the Camino frances further to the west. Before le Puy, the via Gebennensis leaves from Geneva, gathering Swiss and German pilgrims and feeding into the via Podiensis. Though it bears a Latin name, the via Gebennensis is a modern route laid out in 1980-90, though the numerous hospitals it passes testify to the passage of pilgrims along this route in earlier ages. From Geneva to

782-706: The Way of St. James , the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela , as it stands at the base of the Roncevaux Pass across the Pyrenees . Pied-de-Port means 'foot of the pass' in Pyrenean French. The routes from Paris, Vézelay and Le Puy-en-Velay meet at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and it was the pilgrims' last stop before the arduous mountain crossing. In 1998, the Porte St-Jacques (city gate)

828-454: The cult image at the centre of the site, a wooden Black Madonna reputed to have been carved by Saint Amator (Amadour) himself. The small Benedictine community continued to use the small twelfth-century church of Saint-Michel, above and to the side. Below, the pilgrimage church opens onto a terrace where pilgrims could assemble, called the Plateau of St Michel. In the cliff face above,

874-542: The founding legend , Rocamadour is named after the founder of the ancient sanctuary, Saint Amator , identified with the Biblical Zaccheus , the tax collector of Jericho mentioned in Luke 19:1-10, and the husband of St. Veronica , who wiped Jesus' face on the way to Calvary . Driven out of Palestine by persecution, St. Amadour and St. Veronica embarked in a frail skiff and, guided by an angel , landed on

920-488: The 12th century. Géraud d'Escorailles (abbot from 1152 to 1188) built the religious buildings, financed by donations from visitors. The works were finished at the end of the 12th century. In 1166, excavation for a grave in front of the entrance to the chapel of the Virgin uncovered an intact body, presented as that of Saint Amadour . Rocamadour had found its saint. At least four stories, more or less tinged with legend, presented Saint Amadour as being close to Jesus . (The body

966-701: The Black Virgin) after a pilgrimage to the shrine. Rocamadour inspired 20th-century Latin American novelists Julio Cortázar and Giannina Brashi who lived in France for some time and wrote in Spanish about immigrants, expatriates, and tourists. In Cortazar's opus " Hopscotch ", the sad heroine La Maga has a baby boy named Rocamadour who dies in his sleep. The dead baby Rocamadour is also a character in Giannina Braschi's novel "Yo-Yo Boing!". Rocamadour

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1012-717: The Dordogne Valley. The Aéroport Brive Vallée de la Dordogne (BVE) is located only a few kilometres from many of the region's star attractions whilst the Aéroport Bergerac Dordogne Périgord (EGC) is situated just 6 km south of Bergerac. The territory of the commune of Rocamadour includes several hamlets: L'Hospitalet, Les Alix, Blanat, Mas de Douze, Fouysselaze, Magès, La Fage, La Gardelle, Chez Langle, La Vitalie, Mayrinhac-le-Francal. The ancient forms of Rocamadour are Rocamador from 968, Rupis Amatoris in 1186 . According to Dauzat ,

1058-589: The Notre-Dame chapel which was rebuilt in 1479 by Denys de Bar, Bishop of Tulle. Subsequently, during the French Wars of Religion , the iconoclastic passage of Protestant mercenaries in 1562 caused the destruction of religious buildings and their relics. The canons describe, in a petition to Pope Pius IV in 1563, the damage caused: "They have, oh pain! all trashed; they burned and looted its statues and paintings, its bells, its ornaments and jewels, all that

1104-627: The Pyrenees, the two routes ( via Gebennensis and via Podiensis ) are waymarked as one of the French major hiking routes , the GR 65 , with a few local variations or detours, including GR 651 through the valley of Célé and GR 652 via Rocamadour . According to the A Guide for the Traveller compiled by Aymeric Picaud in the 12th century, four routes lead to Santiago de Compostella: In 950 or 951, Godescalc , bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay , set off on

1150-667: The cave drawings of the Grotte des Merveilles . The Grotte de Linars cave and its porch served as an underground necropolis and a habitat in the Bronze Age . The vestiges are deposited in the museum at Cabrerets and at the town hall in Rocamadour. During the Iron Age , the Cadurques people arrived from middle Germany. In the eighth century BC., they colonised the current Lot department, using their iron weapons. The remains of

1196-466: The church of St Sauveur are covered with paintings and inscriptions recalling the pilgrimages of celebrated people. The subterranean church of St Amadour (1166) extends beneath St Sauveur and contains relics of the saint. On the summit of the cliff stands the château built in the Middle Ages to defend the sanctuaries. Rocamadour and its many caves already housed people in the Paleolithic as shown in

1242-588: The coast of Aquitaine , where they met Bishop St. Martial , another disciple of Christ who was preaching the Gospel in the south-west of Gaul . After journeying to Rome , where he witnessed the martyrdoms of St Peter and St Paul , Amadour, having returned to France, on the death of his spouse, withdrew to a wild spot in Quercy where he built a chapel in honour of the Blessed Virgin , near which he died

1288-494: The completion of the buildings. The castle was protected by three towers, a wide moat and numerous lookouts. In 1317, the monks left Rocamadour. The site was then administered by a chapter of canons appointed by the bishop. In the fourteenth century, a cooling climate, famines , epidemics like the Black Death ravaged Europe. In 1427, reconstruction was started, but without financial or human resources. A huge rock crushed

1334-588: The complex of monastic buildings and pilgrimage churches , traditionally dependent on the pilgrimage site and now on the tourist trade, lies near the river on the lowest slopes; it gives its name to Rocamadour , a small goat 's-milk cheese that was awarded AOC status in 1996. Rocamadour is located in the Lot department in the far north of the Occitanie region. Close to Périgord and the Dordogne valley, Rocamadour

1380-500: The mid-nineteenth century, owing to the zeal and activity of the bishops of Cahors , it seems to have revived. Rocamadour is classed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as part of the St James' Way pilgrimage route. In her book-length poem, Solitude , Vita Sackville-West uses Rocamadour in her dedication, as site and setting for inspiration. The composer Francis Poulenc wrote in 1936 Litanies à la Vierge Noire (Litanies to

1426-501: The middle and the lay workers down near the river. Documents mention that in 1105 a small chapel was built in a shelter of the cliff at a place called Rupis Amatoris , at the limit of the territories of the Benedictine abbeys of Saint-Martin at Tulle and Saint-Pierre at Marcilhac-sur-Célé . In 1112, Eble de Turenne, Abbot of Tulle settled in Rocamadour. In 1119, the first donation was made by Eudes, Comte de la Marche. In 1148,

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1472-533: The north in the Bas Limousin . The buildings of Rocamadour ( from ròca , cliff and saint Amador ) rise in stages up the side of a cliff on the right bank of the Alzou, which runs between rocky walls 120 metres (390 ft) in height. Flights of steps ascend from the lower town to the churches, a group of massive buildings half-way up the cliff. The chief of them is the pilgrimage church of Notre Dame (rebuilt in its present configuration from 1479), containing

1518-402: The origin of this pilgrimage has given rise to controversies between critical and traditional schools, especially in recent times. A vehicle by which the legend was disseminated and pilgrims drawn to the site was The Miracles of Our Lady of Rocamadour , written ca. 1172, an example of the miracula , or books of collected miracles, which had such a wide audience in the Middle Ages. According to

1564-416: The place was named the castling of Saint Amadour. In 1618, on a map of the diocese of Cahors by Jean Tarde, the name of Roquemadour appeared. The locality L'Hospitalet, overlooking Rocamadour, has a name from espitalet which meant small hospital and has Latin origin hospitalis . This reception centre was founded in 1095 by Dame Hélène de Castelnau. Rocamadour was a dependency of the abbey of Tulle to

1610-626: The river Nive , 8 km (5.0 mi) from the Spanish border, and is the head town of the region of Basse-Navarre (Lower Navarre in English) and was classified among the Most Beautiful Villages of France in 2016. The Pays de Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, also called Pays de Cize ( Garazi in Basque ), is the region surrounding Saint-Jean-Pied-Port. The town's layout is essentially one main street with sandstone walls encircling. It

1656-529: The stèle of Gibraltar ( Xibaltarre hilarria ) in the village of Uhart-Mixe . The distance from the stele of Gibraltar to Santiago de Compostela is 768 kilometers (477 miles). Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (literally "Saint John [at the] Foot of [the] Pass"; Basque : Donibane Garazi ; Spanish : San Juan Pie de Puerto ) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. It

1702-414: The toponym comes from the name of a saint, Amator . According to Gaston Bazalgues, the toponym Rocamadour is a medieval form which originates from Rocamajor . Roca pointed to a rock shelter and major spoke of its importance. This name would have been Christianized from 1166 with the invention of the false hagiotoponym Saint Amadour or Saint Amateur. In 1473, according to the monograph of Edmond Albe,

1748-570: The town. Biarritz Airport is the closest airport to Saint Jean Pied de Port. Rocamadour Rocamadour ( French pronunciation: [ʁɔkamaduʁ] ; Rocamador in Occitan ) is a commune in the Lot department in southwestern France . It lies in the former province of Quercy . It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages of France) Association. Rocamadour has attracted visitors for its setting in

1794-489: The treasure of Notre-Dame since the 12th century. The site was again looted during the French Revolution . Since the early 20th century, Rocamadour has become more of a tourist destination than a pilgrimage center, although pilgrimage continues and remains important. Rocamadour's environs are now marked by several animal parks, including Le Rocher des Aigles and Le Forêt des Singes (a bird of prey park and

1840-699: The valley of the river Lot , passing Gréalou , Cajarc , and Varaire . A second variation passes through the valley of the Célé , Espagnac-Sainte-Eulalie , Marcilhac-sur-Célé , Sauliac-sur-Célé , Cabrerets , Saint-Cirq-Lapopie . The two variants converge and pass through Cahors , Labastide-Marnhac , Lhospitalet , Lascabanes , Montcuq . A third variant running north of the route passes through Rocamadour . The route passes Lauzerte , Moissac , and Auvillar . The route passes Saint-Antoine-sur-l'Arrats , Flamarens , Miradoux , Lectoure , La Romieu , Condom , Valence-sur-Baïse , Larressingle , Beaumont sur l'Osse ,

1886-740: The walls is a new town, with the Hôtel de Ville and a pelota fronton . Traditional crafts and foods remain in the town, including Basque linen from the Inchauspé family since 1848. The town is now an important tourist centre for the Pyrenees and the French Basque country and there are shops, restaurants and hotels. St-Jean-Pied-de-Port specializes in goat cheese, like the Ossau-Iraty AOP cheese, artisanal trout breeding and piperade omelette with peppers and Bayonne ham. Mondays see

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1932-695: Was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites as part of the sites along the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France . The cobbled rue de la Citadelle runs down hill and over the river from the fifteenth century Porte St-Jacques to the Porte d'Espagne by the bridge. From the bridge, there are views of the old houses with balconies overlooking the Nive. Many of the buildings are very old, built of pink and grey schist , and retain distinctive features, including inscriptions over their doors. One,

1978-487: Was an unknown hermit or possibly St. Amator , Bishop of Auxerre , but this is mere hypothesis, without any historical basis. The origin of the sanctuary of Rocamadour, lost in antiquity, is thus set down along with fabulous traditions which cannot bear up to sound criticism. After the religious manifestations of the Middle Ages , Rocamadour, as a result of war and the French Revolution , had become almost deserted. In

2024-508: Was burned during the French Wars of Religion and today only fragments of bone remain, on view in the crypt of Saint-Amadour.) In 1211, the pontifical legate during the Albigensian Crusade , Arnaud Amalric , came to spend the winter in Rocamadour. In addition, in 1291, Pope Nicholas IV granted three bulls and forty day indulgences for site visitors. The end of the 13th century saw the height of Rocamadour's influence and

2070-562: Was necessary for divine worship ... ". The relics were desecrated and destroyed, including the body of Saint Amadour. According to witnesses, the Protestant Captain Jean Bessonia broke it with the smith's hammer, saying: "I am going to break you, since you did not want to burn". Captains Bessonie and Duras would draw, for the benefit of the Prince of Condé's army, the sum of 20,000 pounds from everything that made up

2116-595: Was thereafter a town of the Kingdom of Navarre , and the seat of the sheriff of the Lower Navarre district ("merindad" of Ultrapuertos or Deça-Ports ). It remained as such up to the period of the Spanish conquest (1512-1528) when King Henry II of Navarre decided to transfer the seat of the royal institutions to Saint Palais (Donapaleu) on safety grounds. The town has traditionally been an important point on

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