Place of pilgrimage located in the Sanctuary of Lourdes.
The cave of Massabielle is 3.80 meters high, 9.50 meters deep and 9.85 meters wide. It corresponds to an anfractuosity in a rocky wall 27 meters high. The wall is smooth and wet in places, and we can see the karstic resurgence passing in the direction of the Gave de Pau through a hole in the rock. The cave is thus a simple limestone cavity with a morainic block stuck in a gut and some stalagmites.
In 1858, Lourdes had a little more than 4,000 inhabitants when the Virgin appeared to the young Bernadette Soubirous.
On February 11, 1858, Bernadette went to the rock of Massabielle, on the banks of the Gave, to collect dead wood. This place is called the "tutte aux cochons" (the pigs' tutte) because it is so dirty and dark.
It was there that Bernadette heard "a gust of wind". She then saw a Lady in the rock; it was the first apparition. Seventeen others followed, until July 16, 1858.
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