Basilique Notre-Dame de Peyragude

Penne-d'Agenais

At the highest point of Penne-d'Agenais, the silver dome of Notre-Dame de Peyragude — "the sharp rock" in Occitan — watches over the Lot valley. Around the year 1000, a knightly family raised on this rock a chapel dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, the oldest known under that dedication in the region. Pilgrims on the Rocamadour route to Compostela (today the GR 652) took to climbing up to pray there. Destroyed by the Protestants during the Wars of Religion, the sanctuary was reborn, according to tradition, from an apparition: in 1562, the Virgin is said to have shown herself to a poor shepherdess, asking for the chapel to be rebuilt, promising the child that she would never want for bread and leaving a small statue as a pledge. In 1653, the consuls of Penne vowed to rebuild the chapel if the plague spared the town: their prayer answered, they kept their word and the pilgrimage grew considerably. Demolished at the Revolution — the little statue, for its part, survived — the chapel was modestly rebuilt half a century later, before the diocese set its sights higher: the first stone of a vast Romano-Byzantine basilica was laid in 1897, and the building, delayed by wars and lack of funds, was consecrated only on 11 September 1949, dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners. Its 47 stained-glass windows unfold the life of the Virgin; Compostela pilgrims and walkers still cross paths there.

Getting there : At the top of the medieval town of Penne-d'Agenais; car parks at the foot of the village, walk up through the lanes and fortified gateways to the esplanade of the basilica. Its silver dome can be seen from the whole Lot valley.

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

Ambient sound