ROCAMADOUR  , a

village of south-western France, in the department of Lot, 36 m . N.N.E. of Cahors by road . Pop . (1906) 296 . Rocamadour, a famous place of pilgrimage, is most strikingly situated . Its buildings rise in stages up the side of a cliff on the right bank of the Alzou, which here runs between rocky walls 400 ft. in height . Flights of steps ascend from the lower town to the churches—a group of massive buildings half-way up the cliff . The chief of them is the church of Notre-Dame (1479), containing the wooden figure of the Madonna reputed to have been carved by St Amadour . The church opens on to a terrace called the Plateau of St Michel, where there is a broken sword said to be a fragment of " Durandal," once wielded by the hero Roland . The interior walls of the church of St Sauveur are covered with paintings and inscriptions recalling the pilgrimages of celebrated persons . The subterranean church of St Amadour (1166) extends beneath St Sauveur and contains relics of the saint . On the summit' of the cliff stands the chateau built in the middle ages to defend the sanctuaries .

Rocamadour owes its origin to St Amadour or

Amateur, who, according to tradition, chose the place as a hermitage for his devotions to the Virgin Mary . The saint is identified with Zacchaeus the publican and disciple of Jesus, who is said to have journeyed to Gaul to preach the gospel . The renown of Rocamadour as a place of pilgrimage dates from the early middle ages .