Lourdes, << loord or loordz >> (pop. 13,651), is a town in southwestern France. It lies at the intersection of seven valleys in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. The town is a shrine for Roman Catholic pilgrims. In 1858, a 14-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed that the Virgin Mary appeared to her there 18 times (see Bernadette, Saint ). Lourdes is also famous for its fortress, which the Counts of Bigorre built between the 1000’s and the 1300’s. Tourists and pilgrims who visit the site of Bernadette’s visions are major contributors to the town’s economy.
Charlemagne, a famous ruler of the Middle Ages, marched through Lourdes in 778. King Henry IV of France was born in the nearby town of Pau in 1553. Armies of Huguenots (French Protestants) destroyed most of Lourdes in the late 1500’s. The town also suffered damage during Napoleon I’s struggle against Spain in the early 1800’s. Much of Lourdes was rebuilt in the middle and late 1800’s. The underground Basilica of St. Pius X opened in Lourdes in 1958. It is one of the largest Catholic churches in Europe.
