Collégiale Notre-Dame-de-la-Carce

Marvejols

Its very name tells a story: "Carce" comes from the word for prison, and tradition relates that in the 12th century an Aragonese prince, thrown into a dungeon at Marvejols, was miraculously freed through the intercession of the Virgin. From this wondrous deliverance was born the devotion to Notre-Dame de la Carce — Our Lady of the Prison — invoked ever since on behalf of captives and the afflicted. The church that grew out of this cult at the end of the 12th century became a collegiate church in 1310, before sharing the tragic fate of the town: in 1586, during the Wars of Religion, Marvejols was sacked and the building destroyed. Its reconstruction, begun in 1654, turned it into a manifesto of the Counter-Reformation: an austere facade on Jesuit models, a bell tower crowned with a dome and, inside, a lavish decor enriched in the 19th century by the wall paintings of Marcellin Laporte. In the choir stands the venerated statue of Notre-Dame de la Carce, a 17th-century Virgin and Child 1.32 m tall, whose chased and enamelled gold crowns, the work of a 19th-century goldsmith, are listed as historic monuments. A chapel dedicated to Saint Roch keeps alive the memory of the plague that struck the Gévaudan from 1720 to 1723. Between the town's three fortified gates, the collegiate church remains the spiritual heart of a community that has made its liberating Virgin its protector.

Getting there : Place de la Coustarade, in the old centre of Marvejols (630 m above sea level); open to visitors all year round, individuals and groups. Coordinates given for the old centre.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound