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.

Rocamadour has attracted visitors for its setting in 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 has attracted pilgrims from many countries, among them kings, bishops and nobles.

The town below 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.

 RocamadourPrehistory

Rocamadour and its many caves already housed people in the Paleolithic as shown in 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 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.[1]

Middle ages The beginnings and the influence

The three levels of the village of Rocamadour date from the Middle Ages and they reflect the three orders of society: the knights above, linked to religious clerics in the middle and the lay workers down near the river.

Rare 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, a first miracle was announced. The pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary attracted crowds. The statue of the Black Madonna dates from 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.

Rocamadour already enjoyed European fame as evidenced by the 12th-century book Livre des Miracles[2] written by a monk from the sanctuary and received many pilgrims. In 1159, Henry II of England, husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine, came to Rocamadour to thank the Virgin for her healing.

In 1166, wanting to bury a resident, they discovered 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.

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 the completion of the buildings. The castle was protected by three towers, a wide moat and numerous lookouts.[1]

Decline

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 the Notre-Dame chapel which was rebuilt in 1479 by Denys de Bar, Bishop of Tulle.[3]

Subsequently, during the French Wars of Religion, the iconoclastic passage of Protestant mercenaries in 1562 caused the destruction of religious buildings and their relics.[4] 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 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 the treasure of Notre-Dame since the 12th century.[5]

The site was again looted during the French Revolution.

Contemporary Rocamadour

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 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.[6]

^ a b Cheveau, Michelle (1998). Rocamadour: Une cité en équilibre (in French). Concots. p. 430. ISBN 2-9510050-6-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ^ Le livre de Notre-Dame de Rocamadour au XIIe siècle (in French). Moine du sanctuaire de Rocamadour. Toulouse: Le Pérégrinateur. 1996. ISBN 2910352048. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: others (link) ^ Cranga, Y. & F. (1997). "L'escargot dans le midi de la France, approche iconographique" (PDF) (in French). Retrieved 22 July 2009. ^ Rosary, Eugène (1864). Les Pèlerinages de France (in French). Mégard et Ce. ^ Montaigu, Henry (8 April 1974). Rocamadour ou la pierre des siècles. Haut lieux de spiritualité. Éditions SOS. pp. 108–9. ISBN 2-7185-0774-8. ^ Weibel, Deana L. (2022). A sacred vertigo : pilgrimage and tourism in Rocamadour, France. Lanham, Maryland. ISBN 978-1-7936-5033-7. OCLC 1285370679.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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