Business trip to Brussels, are there caves? Sadly, there are no caves in town, and I don't have enough free time in the evenings to venture outside. However, there's an intriguing thing in town: a copy of the famous Grotte de Lourdes from France. A chapel or a place of worship.
The "cave" is indeed man-made. It was was erected in 1913 by the Archbishop of Mechelen, Cardinal Mercier, and Father Swalus as the first parish priest. Contractors were hired to do the construction ... interesting.
And this isn't the only copy. Just around Brussels there are several. Then around Europe, North-America, and throughout the world. What's going on? It all comes to Grotte de Massabielle, located in Lourdes in Hautes-Pyrénées, France. But that cave is mostly known as the Grotte de Lourdes, a Catholic pilgrimage site.
The story goes back to 1858, when a 14-year old girl, Bernadette Soubirous said she saw 18 apparitions of Virgin Mary in the cave. Apparitions are supernatural appearances of a person or phantoms. Bernadette's statements sparked controversy and investigations and counter-investigations. Crowds gathered to attempt to witness the apparitions, city blocked access to limit the crowds, but Bernadette stood firm and stood by the barriers to the cave.
Then, in 1862 the emperor allowed re-opening the access to the cave, and bishop stated that the church believed in what Bernadette had seen:
"We are […] convinced that the Apparition is supernatural and divine, and that, consequently, what Bernadette saw was the Most Holy Virgin"
Virgin Mary has since then be called "Our Lady of Lourdes", and several churches were constructed near the cave: the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The events were well documented, and received wide attention. They also bear resemblance to other sightings of the Virgin Mary few years earlier, which also caused a lot of controversy in France. And of course, the Pyrenees have been a path for the pilgrims to travel through, and the interest in Virgin Mary has risen several times, as well as of course being promoted by the Catholic Church. The pope had recently spoken about immaculate conception, for instance.
In 1863, Marie-Elfride and Marie-Sabine de Lacour commissioned a statue for Our Lady of the Lourdes in a niche high up in the cave. The statue was created by artist Joseph-Hugues Fabisch. The statue is similar to what there is in Brussels, see the opening picture of this post.
Today, the grotto in Lourdes receives millions of visitors yearly. There's a large number of copies of the cave built around the world, on all continents. Just in Canada there are 72 Grottes de Lourdes! See the full list of copies here.
The original Grotte de Lourdes has been protected as a historic site since 1995.
Read more about the cave in Brussels from Wikipedia or the official home page. And about the Grotto of Lourdes also from Wikipedia or from the official visitor page.
The Brussels one is at the coordinates N 50.875570 E 4.337648, and the original Grotto de Lourdes is at N 43.097595 W 0.058708.
Photos:
Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment