Lourdes in the northern foothills of the Pyrenees
Wednesday, 4 July 2012 - 01:48 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union General
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Lourdes Basilica © Darreenvt
🔊 Listen to this Post
Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France. Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the
Marian apparitions of
Our Lady of Lourdes said to have occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous. At that time, the most prominent feature of the town was the fortified castle that rises up from a rocky escarpment at its centre.
Following the reports that Our Lady of Lourdes had appeared to Bernadette Soubirous on a total of eighteen occasions, Lourdes has developed into a major place of Roman Catholic pilgrimage and of miraculous healings . The 150th Jubilee of the first apparition took place on 11 February 2008 with an outdoor mass attended by approximately 45,000 pilgrims.
Our Lady of Lourdes © Manuel González Olaechea y Franco
Since the apparitions, Lourdes has become one of the world’s leading Catholic
Marian shrines and the number of visitors grows each year. It has such an important place within the Roman Catholic church, that
Pope John Paul II visited the shrine twice on 15 August 1983 and 14–15 August 2004. In 2007,
Pope Benedict XVI authorized special indulgences to mark the 150th anniversary of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Today Lourdes has a population of around 15,000 but is able to take in some 5,000,000 pilgrims and tourists every season. With about 270 hotels, Lourdes has the second greatest number of hotels per square kilometre in France after
Paris .
It is the joint seat of the
Diocese of Tarbes-et-Lourdes and is the largest pilgrimage site in France, the second site being the
Basilica of St. Thérèse (Lisieux), in Normandy.
Read more on
City of Lourdes ,
Pilgrimage Lourdes ,
Lourdes Tourism and
Wikipedia Lourdes . Learn more about the
use of photos . To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
Weather report by weather.com -
Johns Hopkins University & Medicine - Coronavirus Resource Center -
Global Passport Power Rank -
Democracy Index -
GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
Global Competitiveness Report -
Corruption Perceptions Index -
Press Freedom Index -
World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index -
UN Human Development Index -
Global Peace Index -
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
VIDEO
Recommended posts:
[caption id="attachment_200791" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Meihe Chen/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Guangzhou, also known as Canton since its French colonial times before the end of World War II, is the capital and most populous city of the province of Guangdong in southern China. On the Pearl River about 120 km (75 mi) north-northwest of Hong Kong and 145 km (90 mi) north of Macau, Guangzhou has a history of over 2,200 years and was a major terminus of the maritime Silk Road, and continues to serve as a major ...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_206569" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © orderinchaos/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Sydney Road (in its northernmost part also known as the Hume Highway) is a major urban arterial in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Sydney Road starts at the northern end of Royal Parade at the boundary of Parkville and Brunswick and continues north through Brunswick, Coburg, Coburg North, Hadfield, Fawkner, Campbellfield, Somerton and Craigieburn, where it joins the Hume Freeway. The sec...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_201681" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Janki Mandir © Abhishek Dutta - abhishekdutta.org/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Janakpur is the headquarters of Dhanusa District at Province No. 2 in Nepal. The city is a centre for religious and cultural tourism. It has been declared as the temporary capital for Province no. 2 until Province Assembly votes for a permanent capital. This city is also known as Janakpurdham, which was founded in the early 18th century. According to oral tradition, an earlier...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_157760" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - High Diver/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia in Canada. he population is at 604,000 in the city, making it the eighth largest Canadian municipality. The Greater Vancouver area of around 2.4 million inhabitants is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country, the second largest city on the ...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_5970" align="aligncenter" width="590" caption="Swallow's Nest © flickr.com - Иерей Максим Массалитин"][/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Crimea, or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name. It was often referred to with the definite article, as the Crimea, until well into the 20th century.
The territory of Crimea was conquered and con...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_25716" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Order of Knights Templar in Europe around 1300 © Marco Zanoli/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple (French: Ordre du Temple or Templiers) or simply as Templars, were among the most wealthy and powerful of the Western Christian military orders and were among the most prominent ac...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_154180" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Shenzhen © Joe.H.K.[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first - and one of the most successful - Special Economic Zones (SEZs). It currently also holds sub-provincial administrative status, with powers slightly less than a province.
Shenzhen's novel and modern cityscape is the result of the vibrant economy made possible by ra...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_213629" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Eiffel Tower and La Defense business district from the Tour Montparnasse © flickr.com - David McSpadden/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Île-de-France (literally "Island of France") is the most populous of the 18 regions of France. It is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the Région Parisienne ("Paris Region") because it includes the city of Paris. Île-de-France is densely populated and economically important: it covers only 12...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_6165" align="aligncenter" width="590"]Hannover - Great Garden in Herrenhausen Gardens © Arabsalam[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has traditionally been a more general one. Zoos, which display wild animals in simulated natural habit...
[ read more ]
[caption id="attachment_160754" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Eutin Castle © Oliver Raupach[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Holstein Switzerland (German: Holsteinische Schweiz) is a hilly area with a patchwork of lakes and forest in Schleswig Holstein, Germany, reminiscent of Swiss landscape. Its highest point is the Bungsberg (168 metres above sea level). It is a designated nature park as well as an important tourist destination in Northern Germany situated between the cities of Kiel and Lübeck.
Holstein Switzerland lies...
[ read more ]
