Sarrance. Church . 17th century.

Legend has it that where we now find the church of Sarrance a small Marian sanctuary was founded in the Middle Ages, after the apparition of a statue of the Virgin. Some authors insist that this was the oldest Marian sanctuary in the Pyrenees. However, it was completely destroyed during the wars of religion and the church was rebuilt in the 17th century and filled, over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, with Barroque carvings and altarpieces.

The original sanctuary was founded in the 12th century, but only the Romanesque apse and the memory of the carving that inspired the original devotion and which presides over the main altar (Notre-Dame de la Pierre) have survived. One of the lateral chapels holds an altarpiece from the 18th century that narrates how the image was found by an oxherd. In the centre we can find the head of a black virgin which appears to date from the 14th century and is the earliest representation of the Virgin of Sarrance – the only piece that survived the destruction of the church in 1569. At that time, as a result of the banning of the Catholic faith, the so-called “idol” of Sarrance was destroyed, the pilgrims’ hospital was turned into a hostel and the Bearn was converted to Protestantism.

In 1605, reconstruction began and continued for 70 years, culminating in the church we see before us. The destruction and rebuilding process gave the church a homogenous Barroque style, typical of the Counter-Reformation, with particular emphasis on the subjects of penitence, preaching and meditation. The pulpit (tornavoz) is worth mentioning with its elaborate decoration of golden bas-reliefs of the four evangelists. Also noteworthy are the stained-glass windows of the apse or the statue of the Virgin which presides over the whole.

. [ Vallée d'Aspe ]