Rocamadour

Rocamadour is stacked up a cliff. The gorge of the Alzou, a tributary of the Dordogne, is walled here by limestone faces about 120 m high, and the medieval town has been built in layers up one of them: a single street of houses and gates along the bottom, a cluster of churches and chapels wedged into a ledge halfway up, and a castle on the rim at the top. The arrangement was once read as a picture of the feudal order - the working people by the river, the clergy in the middle, the knights above - and seen from the road on the far side of the valley it is one of the most startling views in France.

The reason for all this building is a pilgrimage. A wooden statue of the Virgin, dark with age and dating from the 12th century, made Rocamadour one of the great shrines of medieval Europe. In 1166 a body was found near the entrance to the Virgin's chapel and venerated as that of a hermit, Saint Amadour, and a book of the shrine's miracles was compiled in 1172. Kings and queens came - Henry II of England in 1159, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Blanche of Castile and Louis IX of France among them - and in 1536 Jacques Cartier vowed a pilgrimage here. Tradition also says a bell in the sanctuary rang by itself when sailors who had prayed to the Virgin were saved at sea.

The sanctuary itself is a small city of seven churches and chapels around a courtyard, among them the basilica of Saint-Sauveur, the crypt of Saint-Amadour below it and the Chapel of Notre-Dame, rebuilt in 1479, where the Black Virgin still stands. The chapel of Saint-Michel dates from the 12th century. Pilgrims reached this level by the Grand Escalier, 216 steps rising from the street below, traditionally climbed on the knees. Above the sanctuary a way of the cross zigzags up through the trees to the castle. Local legend makes Rocamadour the resting place of Durandal, the sword of Roland, and for centuries a blade was shown lodged in the rock face.

Rocamadour lies on a route of the Way of St James and is part of that UNESCO World Heritage listing. For the whole picture, go to L'Hospitalet on the plateau above, named after the pilgrims' hospice founded there, from which the town, sanctuary and castle can be seen hanging over the gorge together.

Getting there

Rocamadour is about 40 km from Brive-la-Gaillarde and about 29 km from Brive-Vallée de la Dordogne Airport (BVE). The nearest railway station is Rocamadour-Padirac, on the line between Brive-la-Gaillarde and Toulouse. The classic first view is from L'Hospitalet on the plateau above the town.