Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Grâce

Rochefort-du-Gard

On its rock keeping watch over the plain between Avignon and Nîmes, Notre-Dame de Grâce is one of the oldest Marian pilgrimage sites in the Midi. Tradition dates the first chapel to the year 798 and links it to the memory of Charlemagne, in commemoration of the victories won over the Saracens in the region by Charles Martel and Pepin the Short; it also tells that in the 12th century a shepherd found a statue of the Virgin here, a sign that Mary had chosen this summit. Neglected and then turned into a sheepfold at the end of the Middle Ages, the chapel was spectacularly reborn in the 17th century: the Benedictines of Saint-Maur, who arrived in 1637, rebuilt the church entirely, and the registers of the time record seventy miracles — the blind regaining their sight, the feverish and the paralysed cured. The great pilgrimages then gathered up to 40,000 people in three days. Sold as national property at the Revolution, the sanctuary was revived by the Marist fathers from 1846 to 1962, who laid out the Way of the Cross leading to the calvary raised facing Mont Ventoux and the Alpilles. The three-aisled church preserves a moving collection of painted ex-votos, left from the 17th to the 20th century by sailors saved from shipwreck, the sick restored to health, travellers who escaped disaster: a whole popular history of grace, painted in small format. The site, registered as a historic monument in 2013, remains a living place of pilgrimage and a serene belvedere over the Rhône valley.

Getting there : Access road passable by car from the village of Rochefort-du-Gard, car park then climb on foot; church, Way of the Cross and esplanade freely accessible, guesthouse at the sanctuary.

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

Ambient sound