Basilique Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours

Lablachère

It all begins, according to tradition, with two falls from a horse. Around 1680, Julien Gineste Delille, a former soldier of Louis XIV retired to Lablachère, was twice thrown from his mount in the garrigue; calling on the Virgin, he vowed to raise a chapel if he came out of it alive. He kept his word: a modest chapel of sixteen square metres rose in the district that would take the name of Notre-Dame, and in 1682 he installed there a wooden statue brought back from Paris. Pilgrims from the Ardèche Cévennes flocked so quickly that the Bishop of Viviers had the building enlarged. After the turmoil of the Revolution, the pilgrimage resumed in 1845 and was entrusted to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the congregation founded by Eugène de Mazenod, who undertook the present church. Consecrated in August 1880 before more than twenty thousand people, at a ceremony during which the original statue was solemnly crowned, it received the title of minor basilica on 14 August 1930. The little wooden Virgin of 1682 is still enthroned at the heart of the sanctuary, surrounded by an imposing collection of ex-votos bearing witness to the graces and healings attributed to Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours. At the top of the bell tower, a great statue of Mary overlooks the vineyards and chestnut groves: it can be seen from afar on the Alès road, like a beacon raised over the country of Les Vans and Joyeuse. The pilgrimage of 15 August remains one of the best attended in the diocese of Viviers.

Getting there : Hameau Notre-Dame, on the Alès road (D104), 2 km south of the village of Lablachère; car park at the foot of the basilica, open every day in the daytime.

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

Ambient sound