Built on 3 successive levels , Rocamadour is both a place of legend and history where old stone houses, majestic towers and a castle keep cascade off the cliff into the Alzou Canyon. The town below the monastic buildings lies on the lowest slopes. In , an incorruptible body was found buried where the Sanctuary now lays.
This discovery propelled Rocamadour to become one of the 4 most important pilgrimage sites in medieval Christiandom , attracting Kings and paupers alike. The steps that make up the Great Staircase separate the lower town from the complex of religious structures that are set halfway up the cliff. The Sanctuary made of 8 chapels is built around a central courtyard. Carved from the wood of a walnut tree in the 12th century , the Black Madonna has ever since drawn worshippers from all over Europe in search of miracles.
Overhead, the 9th-century iron bell is said to ring on its own when somewhere in the world the Virgin performes a miracle. Many recorded miracles are linked to sailors in peril at sea, hence the boats hanging from the ceiling. The medieval city is also home to the crypt of Saint-Amadour, just below the basilica. As an act of penance in previous times, pilgrims would do the step climb to the Sanctuary on their knees.
Inhabitated as early as the Upper Palaeolithic era , this hamlet offres a picture-postcard view of the golden stone village cascading into the canyon. Nearby, the prehistoric Grotte des Merveilles boasts an underground world of stalactites, lakes and original Paleolithic drawings of horses and deer that date back to 20, B.
The pre-historic artists created the paintings by airbrushing red and black pigment onto the rocks using animal bones and a variety of different stencils like hands. The cave is easily accessible with only a short walk down some steps.
