The story of this place
Rocamadour spills down a sheer 120-metre limestone cliff above the Alzou gorge in a dramatic stack of chapels, houses and a castle. From the 12th century it drew vast numbers of pilgrims to its sanctuary of the Black Madonna, a venerated wooden statue said to work miracles, and to the supposed tomb of Saint Amadour, whose miraculously preserved body was 'discovered' in 1166. Kings Henry II of England and Saint Louis of France climbed its 216 penitential steps on their knees. The rusty iron sword embedded high in the chapel rock is claimed to be Durandal, the legendary blade of Roland. Sacked in the Wars of Religion, the village revived as one of France's great pilgrimage sites.