Only accessible by one road which travels through the town.
Traveling around
A tourist train rides around the village, but it is so small you can easily walk.
See
The town itself is built on the face of a cliff with a large number of buildings cantilevered over the edge. This strange arrangement was the result of the discovery of a body in a nook in the cliff face during the hight of the Dark Ages. Perfectly preserved, the locals came to the conclusion that it was the body of St. Zacheus who was the man who wiped Jesus' face as he carried the cross. Clearly, finding the body of an 1100 year old Saint perfectly preserved was declared a miracle and Rocamadour became a pilgrimage site. Over the ages, churches were added to the site, but their age chronicles the development of Christianity. Besides all the wonderful churches whose total lack of Gothic influence will stretch your definition of how a church should look, there is also the Black Madonna. A very unique depiction of the Virgin Mary with Jesus. First of all both are depicted black, which is very unique for a culture that would have viewed black as bad. Also the child Jesus is not depicted as an infant as is normally the case. Rather he is depicted as a toddler. Clearly they didn't know how things "should" be done, but back then they were still grappling with this new Religion.
Things to do
Take a balloon ride over the Dordogne Valley
Bicycle the valley
Walk around the historic town
Eat
The Best Western Beau Site is the best place to eat in town.
Contact & location
Be the first one to add a review
The photos displayed on this page are the property of one of the following authors:
Rocamadour is a city in France.
Getting there
Only accessible by one road which travels through the town.
Traveling around
A tourist train rides around the village, but it is so small you can easily walk.
See
The town itself is built on the face of a cliff with a large number of buildings cantilevered over the edge. This strange arrangement was the result of the discovery of a body in a nook in the cliff face during the hight of the Dark Ages. Perfectly preserved, the locals came to the conclusion that it was the body of St. Zacheus who was the man who wiped Jesus' face as he carried the cross. Clearly, finding the body of an 1100 year old Saint perfectly preserved was declared a miracle and Rocamadour became a pilgrimage site. Over the ages, churches were added to the site, but their age chronicles the development of Christianity. Besides all the wonderful churches whose total lack of Gothic influence will stretch your definition of how a church should look, there is also the Black Madonna. A very unique depiction of the Virgin Mary with Jesus. First of all both are depicted black, which is very unique for a culture that would have viewed black as bad. Also the child Jesus is not depicted as an infant as is normally the case. Rather he is depicted as a toddler. Clearly they didn't know how things "should" be done, but back then they were still grappling with this new Religion.
Things to do
Take a balloon ride over the Dordogne Valley
Bicycle the valley
Walk around the historic town
Eat
The Best Western Beau Site is the best place to eat in town.
Contact & location
Be the first one to add a review
The photos displayed on this page are the property of one of the following authors:
name_1265, name_612, name_16843
Some photos courtesy of:
. The photos provided by Flickr are under the copyright of their owners.
This travel guide also includes text from Wikitravel articles, all available at
View full credits
Stefan ErtmannAnonymous user(s) of Wikitravel.
This travel guide also includes text from Wikipedia articles, all available at
View full credits