Rocamadour: The Village of Pilgrims
On the cliffs of rural Quercy stands one of the most popular tourist attractions in France.
Long before Disneyland was a thing, before Mickey and Minnie had even met and before all-in package holidays had been invented, there was pilgrimage. In the Middle Ages going on pilgrimage was almost a rite of passage. Between the early eleventh and late sixteenth centuries, as much as one-fifth of the population of Europe would either be on pilgrimage or servicing the pilgrim industry at any one time. As early as 813 AD the Council of Chalons-sur-Saone issued an edict condemning Catholic priests from using pilgrimage as an excuse to get away from their demanding congregants.
That did not mean that the Catholic Church did not appreciate the economic value that a steady stream of pilgrims could generate. Many of the major pilgrim routes such as the Saint Jacques de Compostelle continue to attract thousands of pilgrims from around the world even today. In the Middle Ages, pilgrimage was a major generator of funding for the church. It also facilitated thousands of cottage industries providing food, accommodation and even money changing facilities.
Of course, to attract large numbers of pilgrims, you needed a major drawcard; some ancient holy relic or miraculous event that would…
