Lourdes - The sanctuary of Lourdes, Hospitalité Notre-Dame de Lourdes

43°06N 0°00W, pop (2000e) 17 400. Town and important site of Roman Catholic pilgrimage in Hautes-Pyrénées department, S France; Bernadette Soubirous was led by a vision of the Virgin Mary to the springs at the Grotte de Massabielle in 1858; scene of many reputed miraculous cures; Basilica of the Rosary (1885–9), Church of St-Pie-X (completed, 1958).

For The Brazilian town, see Lourdes, Brazil.

The famous town of Lourdes is situated in the Southwest of the Hautes-Pyrénées department, lying in the first Pyrenean foothills. It is overlooked from the south by the Pyrenean peaks of Aneto, Montaigu, Vignemale (3,298m), while around the town there are three summits reaching up too 1,000m, which are known as the Béout, the Petit Jer with its three crosses and the Grand Jer with its single cross which guard over the town lying below.

Lourdes was originally a small unremarkable market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Following the Apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette, Lourdes has developed into a major tourist destination as a Marian city. Today Lourdes has a population of some 17,000 inhabitants but is able to take in some 5,000,000 pilgrims and tourists every season.

Lourdes lies at an altitude of 1,375 ft (420 m) and in a central position through which runs the Gave de Pau River from the south coming from Gavarnie, into which flow several smaller rivers from Barèges and Cauterets. A statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was erected at the site in 1864. Over the years, Lourdes has become one of the world's leading Marian shrines.

The sanctuary of Lourdes

Yearly from March to October the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is the place of mass pilgrimages from Europe and other parts of the world.

Hospitalité Notre-Dame de Lourdes

During one of the Virgin Mary’s apparitions to Saint Bernadette in 1858, she asked that people come in procession to the Grotto. Ever since then there has been a ‘ministry of welcome’ in Lourdes, receiving and caring for all the pilgrims who come to the apparition site, especially the sick and infirm.

The HNDL is active in Lourdes during the main pilgrimage season (which normally lasts from Easter until November), and it also provides people to welcome pilgrims at the Piscines (Baths) during the winter.