Lourdes

Lourdes, town in south-west France, in the Hautes-Pyrénées Department, on the Gave de Pau River at the base of the Pyrenees. An important fortress town in medieval times, Lourdes is now a place of pilgrimage. Each year millions visit the grotto where in 1858 a 14-year-old girl named Bernadette Soubirous (later St Bernadette) claimed to have had visions of the Virgin Mary. The waters of an underground spring in the grotto are believed to have miraculous healing powers. A three-level basilica, completed in 1876, and a large underground church are at the grotto. Population 15,203 (1999).