The holy city clings to the steep rocky cliffs at a dizzying height, displaying layer upon layer of houses and chapels. Down from the castle which crowns this audacious construction, it’s a sheer drop of some 150 meters with at the bottom the meandering river Alzou. On the Way of Saint James, the basilica of Saint-Sauveur and the crypt of Saint-Amadour, both featured on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, can be admired by visitors once the 216 marches of the Pilgrim’s Stairs have been climbed. But the jewel of the sanctuary is kept in the Chapel of Miracles, one of eight chapels built against the rocks. It is the Black Madonna, which has been worshiped here for over a thousand years.
The Regional Nature Park of the Causses du Quercy lies around Rocamadour like a beautiful blanket. An exceptional natural environment with limestone rock plateaus and verdant valleys, gorges, sources, rivers re-emerging in emerald green lakes, gnarly oak woods and dolmens, old mills and picturesque little bridges. Rocamadour, a village blessed by the gods.