Rocamadour

Rocamadour
Rocamadour
Location within Occitanie region  Rocamadour
Coordinates: 44°48′01″N 1°37′07″E / 44.8003°N 1.6186°E / 44.8003; 1.6186Coordinates: 44°48′01″N 1°37′07″E / 44.8003°N 1.6186°E / 44.8003; 1.6186
Country	France
Region	Occitanie
Department	Lot
Arrondissement	Gourdon
Canton	Gramat
Government
• Mayor (2014–2020)	Pascal Jallet
Area1	49.42 km2 (19.08 sq mi)
Population (2013)2	645
• Density	13/km2 (34/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
INSEE/Postal code	46240 /46500
Elevation	110–364 m (361–1,194 ft) (avg. 279 m or 915 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Rocamadour (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.

Rocamadour is located 36 km. NNE of Cahors by road. It is located on the right bank of the Alzou.

Rocamadour was a dependency of the abbey of Tulle to the north in the Bas Limousin. The buildings of Rocamadour (from ròca, cliff, and sant Amador) rise in stages up the side of a cliff on the right bank of the Alzou, which here runs between rocky walls 120 metres (390 ft) in height. Flights of steps ascend from the lower town to the churches, a group of massive buildings half-way up the cliff. The chief of them is the pilgrimage church of Notre Dame (rebuilt in its present configuration from 1479), containing the cult image at the center of the site's draw, a wooden Black Madonna reputed to have been carved by Saint Amator (Amadour) himself. The small Benedictine community continued to reserve to itself the use of the small twelfth-century church of Saint-Michel, above and to the side. Below, the pilgrimage church opens onto a terrace where pilgrims could assemble, called the Plateau of St Michel, where there is a broken sword said to be a fragment of Durandal, once wielded by the hero Roland. The interior walls of the church of St Sauveur are covered, with paintings and inscriptions recalling the pilgrimages of celebrated persons. The subterranean church of St Amadour (1166) extends beneath St Sauveur and contains relics of the saint. On the summit of the cliff stands the château built in the Middle Ages to defend the sanctuaries.