Lourdes

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Lourdes Town in sw France, in Hautes-Pyrénées department; a centre of religious pilgrimage. In 1858, a 14-year-old peasant girl called Bernadette Soubirous claimed to have had visions of the Virgin Mary in the nearby grotto of Massabielle, where there is an underground spring. In 1862, the Roman Catholic Church declared the visions to be authentic. The waters of the spring, believed to have healing powers, are the focus of pilgrimages by up to 5 million visitors a year. Pop. (1999) 40,000.

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