Lourdes: Bernadette's Pilgrimage Town

Bernadette Soubirous was born at the Boly mill in Lourdes on 7 January 1844. Her mother's family, the Castérot, worked the water mill from 1786 to 1854. It is a quiet start for a story that later drew the world to the town. The mill can be visited today: you can see the room where Bernadette was born, the kitchen, and the old mill with its restored millstones.

Visitor guidance: Visit the mill at 2 rue Bernadette-Soubirous.

By 1858 the Soubirous family had fallen into extreme poverty. They lived in a one-room former jail called le cachot, "the dungeon", rent-free thanks to a cousin of Bernadette's mother. From here, 14-year-old Bernadette set out to gather firewood on the day of her first vision. Pilgrims can still visit the room where the family stayed during the apparitions.

Location precision: The pin marks the street where the cachot stands; the exact entrance is not given in the sources.

Visitor guidance: The room is on the pilgrim trail in the town centre.

On 11 February 1858 Bernadette went with her sister and a friend to gather firewood near the grotto, then rough common ground outside town where villagers grazed animals and dumped rubbish. There she saw the first of 18 visions of a figure she called aquerò, "that". On 25 March the lady said, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Today the spring she found is visible at the back of the grotto behind glass, and the stones under the statue are polished by pilgrims' hands.

Visitor guidance: The grotto is open to pilgrims and visitors; silence is asked nearby.

Across the river from the grotto, a modern church marks the place where Bernadette stood for her eighteenth and last vision on 16 July 1858. She watched from this side because the mayor had barricaded the grotto on 8 June and posted guards. The brutalist church is built on that spot.

Bernadette said the lady wanted a chapel. In 1861 the local priest and bishop bought the grotto land from the town, and the first church, the Crypt, opened on Pentecost Sunday 1866; Bernadette's father worked on its construction. Above it, the Gothic Upper Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, designed by Hyppolyte Durand, was consecrated in 1876 and is crowned by a 70 m spire.

Visitor guidance: The basilica rises directly above the grotto area.

The Rosary Basilica, designed by Leopold Hardy, was completed in 1899 and consecrated in 1901; it holds 1,500 worshippers. Its gilded crown and cross were a gift from Ireland in 1924. Two huge ramps curve down either side of Rosary Square, and the view of the basilica between them has become one of the iconic symbols of Lourdes and the sanctuary's logo.

Visitor guidance: Rosary Square is the main open space in front of the basilica.

Designed by Pierre Vago, the Basilica of St. Pius X was completed in 1958 for the centenary of the apparitions, built almost entirely underground. When full it holds 25,000 worshippers. It was dedicated by the future Pope John XXIII, then nuncio to France. Together, these churches grew from Bernadette's request for a single chapel.