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 400 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 the use of the small twelfth-century church of Saint-Michel, above and to the side. Below, the pilgrimage church opens on to 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.Famous pilgrims include:-

• Roland
• Eleanor of Aquitaine
• Henry II of England
• Blanche of Castile
• Louis IX of France
• Charles IV of France
• Louis XI of France

It was also an important stage on the Pilgrimage to the alledged relic of St James at Santiago de Compostella in NE Spain.

A 3 frame HDR image -2,0,+2 EV, Canon 400D, Canon EF-S 17-85 IS USM lens at 17mm, ISO 100, f22. Processed in Photomatix 3.2 and CS3.

Taken on a cloudy day, with occasional breaks of sun, in December 2007.

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Featured in Eric and Jen’s Eyes Group 7th November 2009

Featured in the ‘Canon Photography Only’ Group December 2011

: CSLNA-5GB2K-6D2AS