^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Lourdes (Municipality, Hautes-Pyrénées, France)

Flag of Lourdes - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 1 February 2025

Presentation of Lourdes
Flag of Lourdes

See also:

Presentation of Lourdes

Lourdes (13,266 inhabitants, 3,694 ha) is a town situated in the Hautes-Pyrénées department.
Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for its Château fort, a fortified castle that rises up from a rocky escarpment at its center. In 1858, Lourdes rose to prominence in France and abroad due to the Marian apparitions to the peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous (who was later canonized for her virtuous life). Shortly thereafter, the city and its Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes became one of the world's most important sites of pilgrimage and religious tourism.

Favorably located between several valleys, the site of Lourdes has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The oppidum of the castle was probably occupied from the 1st century BC. A legend about the origin of the city of Lourdes began to circulate from 1118: Lourdes is said to have taken its name and its coat of arms from the time of Charlemagne; a Saracen named Mirat is said to have taken the city and then suffered a siege there by the emperor in 778. One day, an eagle flying above the castle and holding in its talons an enormous silver trout suddenly made it fall among the besieged Moors. Mirat threw the trout over the ramparts. Charlemagne then believed that the Saracens had enough food to sustain the siege for a long time and decided to break camp. However, Turpin, the bishop of Puy-en-Velay, then proposed a deal to Mirat: he could keep the city on condition that he surrender his arms to the Virgin. Mirat accepted and, by laying down his arms before the black virgin of Puy-en-Velay, he decided to take the name Louerda (the rose in Arabic), in honor of the Virgin of the roses. The story is inspired by the legend of Dame Carcas in Carcassonne.

In the Middle Ages, Lourdes and its castle were the seat of the Count of Bigorre. With the Albigensian Crusade, the castle, considered one of the locks of the province, was disputed between different factions. It came under the domination of the Counts of Champagne, also Kings of Navarre, then into the hands of the Kings of France under Philip the Fair, to be then delivered to the English in 1360 during the Hundred Years' War, and this until the beginning of the 15th century. They were also able to take advantage of the strategic location of the city and its market. Indeed, located at the crossroads of two major communication routes (towards Spain to the south, towards Toulouse to the east and the Atlantic to the west), the city is home to a fairly large market protected by the Count. This market is an important source of income for whoever takes control of the castle. During the Hundred Years' War, Pierre Arnaud de Béarn held the castle of Lourdes for the King of England, as well as all of Bigorre and Lavedan. After 1374 his brother became its captain, but his territory was reduced to the mountainous area. Jean held the castle of Lourdes until October 1407, when, after a hard siege by the party of the King of France and in the absence of English help, he sold his surrender dearly and disappeared. The parish church was destroyed during the Wars of Religion in the 16th century.

Lourdes took advantage of its location. It was, among other things, a stopover on the "bathing route" of Barèges, whose springs were used to treat wounded and sick soldiers. The castle remained an important strategic location, "the lock of Lavedan". At the end of the 18th century, the peace signed with Spain led to the loss of the strategic interest of the castle, which became a prison. In 1788, there was even talk of removing the castle garrison. The city then provided many volunteers to the armies during the revolutionary wars. The danger was significant in 1793 during the war with Spain and the threat of invasion by Lavedan, which was not proven. Peace was signed in 1795 and led to the demilitarization of the castle, which once again housed a garrison of invalids from 1797. During the first half of the 19th century, the town was an agricultural village where pigs were raised. Stone quarries were exploited there. The population was estimated at 4,000 inhabitants in 1843.

In 1858, Bernadette Soubirous said that a White Lady (who would soon define herself to her with the words "Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou" - "I am the Immaculate Conception", which is considered to be a designation of the Virgin Mary) appeared to her several times in the small grotto of Massabielle, on the edge of the Gave de Pau to the west of the city. An ever-increasing fervor took hold of the inhabitants of the surrounding area who came to meditate in front of the grotto which, little by little, took on the appearance of a chapel, but only Bernadette said she "saw" the Virgin. Faced with the massive influx of faithful and curious people, the mayor, Anselme Lacadé, temporarily prohibited access to the grotto by closing it with a wooden barrier, removed at the beginning of October 1858 under popular pressure and the intervention of the Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III and a fervent Catholic. In 1862, the apparitions were officially recognized by Bertrand-Sévère Laurence, Bishop of Tarbes. The "Bureau des constatations" in the sanctuary was responsible for receiving the healing files and since 1858 more than 7,000 healings have been reported, and 70 recognized as miraculous by the Church (the last one was recognized in 2018). Work on the sanctuary began the same year, in 1858. A first chapel was soon replaced by the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, below which the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary was later built to accommodate the increasing number of pilgrims. They are both located above the grotto. Part of the city was declared a "Marian city" by the Church, between the river Gave de Pau, the sanctuary and the castle.

The municipality of Lourdes, under pressure from religious authorities and despite local opposition, widened the streets of the medieval city and traced the Boulevard de la Grotte (1879-1881) leading to the sanctuary, bypassing the castle to the north. The land was then divided up, with the construction of shops and hotels to accommodate pilgrims. The Lourdes tramway was put into service in 1899 and facilitated access from Lourdes station to the Grotto or to the funicular of the Pic du Jer. At the end of the 19th century, Lourdes acquired a new parish church, the Church of the Sacred Heart. The old one, dedicated to Saint Peter, was razed in 1904. Its furnishings were transferred to the castle. Finally, in the 1950s, the immense underground basilica dedicated to Pope Saint Pius X was built. Today, Lourdes is one of the largest Catholic pilgrimages in the world, along with Fatima, Rome, Częstochowa and Guadalupe. Every year, during the pilgrimage season from March to October, the shrine welcomes pilgrims from all over Europe and beyond. The shrine welcomed 3.1 million visitors in 2023.

Olivier Touzeau, 1 February 2025

Flags of Lourdes

A white flag with the coat of arms can be seen on the castle: photo (2023), photo (2020).

The coat of arms of Lourdes is blazoned:
Gules with three towers Or, masoned and pierced sable, the middle one higher and topped with a rising eagle rear-regardant Argent, holding in its beak a trout of the same; a terrace in base Azure with a mountain of 6 hilllocks Or, placed on a river Azure wavy Argent issuant from the base.

Olivier Touzeau, 1 February 2025