Lying at the foot of the Pyrenees, Lourdes is one of the most important and largest centers of Marian worship in the world. The heart of the sanctuary is the Massabielle Grotto, in which in 1858 the Virgin Mary was to appear.
Until 1858, Lourdes was an ordinary mountain village inhabited mainly by shepherds. Everything changed thanks to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, to whom Mary was to appear in the Grotto of Massabielle. The girl also discovered a spring that is considered wonderful. The church's recognition of the apparitions and the wonderful properties of the Lourdes water initiated the rapid development of the sanctuary. Today, there are tens of thousands of beds in the city, and each year they are visited by several million pilgrims.
The most important objects of the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes are centered around the grotto of apparitions. The most impressive building within it is the neo-Gothic Basilica of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary also called the upper basilica. Below it is the eclectic Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, next to it the grotto itself.
The source beating at the rock in Lourdes is considered wonderful. It is to have healing power and many inexplicable healings have been reported here. For this reason, Lourdes is often called the sanctuary of the sick. They come here to take a bath in specially prepared baths with water from the source. In the vicinity of the sanctuary there are not only hotels, but also medicinal facilities.
The latest building within the Sanctuary is the underground Basilica of Saint Pius X. It refers to the Roman catacombs and can house tens of thousands of faithful at one time.
