All About Lourdes, France - Lourdes Travel Guide
One of the most popular pilgrim destinations in France and the world, Lourdes is a busy village nestled within the Pyrenees Mountains and only a short distance from Spain. Most famous for the Virgin Mary sightings, Lourdes has the 2nd highest density of hotel rooms in France, and next only to Paris.
Attracting 5 million pilgrims visiting Lourdes, France annually, the spiritual atmosphere prevailing in the city is only broken by the several shops that sell cheap religious trinkets, rosaries, and other similar items. The most attractive of all religious structures in Lourdes, the Basilica of the Rosary has to be the most splendored and enormous.
But the tourists aren’t attracted to Lourdes for just its religious sanctity. Lourdes is also an ideal adventure destination and offers a range of outdoor activities such as skiing, mountain biking, hiking, kayaking, and more. Then there are the cities of Pau and Tarbes, a charming and exclusive Argeles-Gazost Spa, and behold, a Casino!
Lourdes changed from a small Pyrenees village to a global pilgrim destination after a girl named Bernadette Soubirous saw Virgin Mary during a visit to a save with her sibling. The story goes, Bernadette upon ‘lifting her head, saw in the crevice of the rock, a young girl, surrounded by light, who looked at her and smiled!’ This was only first of the eighteen sightings that Bernadette claimed to have had of Virgin Mary back in the 19th century. Though Bernadette became a nun in Nevers Convent, the cave that she claimed to have seen Virgin Mary in, at the base of one of the largest Romanesque styled Basilica, is a huge crow puller and people come here to get a sip of the water from the spring here and pray for a miracle.
Some of the other attractions in Lourdes include:
• House of Lourdes most loved daughters – Bernadette. You can Bernadette’s room, a mill and much else.
• The Lourdes Gemmail Museum houses a full collection of paining by masters such as Jean Crotti. These paintings are created using non-leaded stained glass or Gemmail and hence, the name.
• The Lourdes Castle is the fortified citadel built on a rocky hill that dominates this city. It served as a vantage point and an important army post having witnessed changes from Middle Ages to modern times.
• The Lourdes Miraculous Medal Museum reconstructs the life of St Catherine Labouré. You can see life-size wax statues dressed in real clothes. The Light and Sound display at the Miraculous Medal Museum reconstructs in detail, the events that lead to this incident back in 1832.
• The Little Lourdes Museum will transport you into the past. You will discover a miniature world that guides you through the history and birth of this sleepy French Village in 1858. With a natural environment, you can admire the olden style stone houses, the water streams, the mills, and also enjoy a lovely flower and bonsai garden.
• The Lourdes Panorama of St Bernadette’s life is an audiovisual recreation of Bernadette’s life and the many sightings of Virgin Mary.