Rocamadour

RAMON LLULL IN ROCAMADOUR

Rocamadour is a monastery east of Bordeaux, where Ramon Llull went on pilgrimage in 1265 at the age of thirty three. In this very important medieval pilgrimage center seeks help from God to undertake the three tasks that he had set himself to do after his conversion: preaching to the “infidels”, writing a great book and the support of popes and kings to his cause. On that same trip he also makes a pilgrimage to Santiago the Compostela, probably through the French route of the historical Way of St. James.

ROCAMADOUR, THEN AND NOW

Rocamadour (Ròcamador in Occitan) is a municipality of around seven hundred inhabitants in the Lot department, in southern France. It is located in the Alzou valley at the foot of the mountains of Causse, in a place of great beauty that has attracted for centuries artists, archaeologists, and especially a crowd of pilgrims and tourists. Rocamadour is known for the impressive religious complex it houses, which once came to have nineteen churches. The buildings were raised on the rocks of a great cliff and are accessed by a long stairway of 216 steps that the pilgrims climbed on their knees.

In the church of Notre-Damme (dedicated to the Black Madonna) one can see a fragment of the Durandal sword which, according to tradition belonged to the legendary hero Roland and, the subterranean church of St. Amadour (1166) contains relics of Saint Amadour. Rocamadour was one of the most visited religious sites of the medieval Europe and was part of the Way of St. James. The Black Madonna of Rocamadour is also venerated in Finisterre. Among his historical visitors, apart from Ramon Llull, there are kings like Louis IX of France, Henry II of England or Alfonso III of Portugal, and preachers such as Domingo de Guzman or Saint Antonio of Padua. Nowadays Rocamadour has the recognition of “Grand Site National de France”.