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Origin and history

The Notre-Dame-de-la-Visitation de Lescure Church is a neo-Gothic religious building located in the village of Lescure, in the commune of Valuejols, in the department of Cantal. This sanctuary was born from a Marian apparition reported by Jean Paillé, a 14-year-old shepherd, on July 2, 1717. According to her testimony, the Virgin Mary appeared to her at the place called "Le Peuch Besse", asking her to dig to discover a statuette with her effigy and to build a chapel in her honor. After finding a wooden statuette near a stone cross, Jean Paillé built a dry stone oratory, despite the villagers' initial scepticism. Events considered miraculous eventually convinced them, marking the beginning of a pilgrimage dedicated to the Virgin.

In 1723, the inhabitants built a chapel on the site of the apparition, blessed two years later by the grand vicar of the bishop of Saint-Flour. The sanctuary was named "Our Lady of the Visitation" in reference to the Christian feast of the day of apparition. Jean Paillé, emancipated to acquire land, participated in the expansion of the building, which enriched with a nave, an altar, a altar and confessionals. A bell tower with two bells was added in 1773. During the Revolution, in 1790, the church was sold to Jean Rousilhes de La Malvieille, who preserved it with the help of the villagers: the bells were hidden and the statuette saved by a resident, Mother Marty, before being resettled after the troubled period.

The site became a major pilgrimage site in Auvergne, attracting faithful who came to worship the Virgin Mary. The statuette discovered by Jean Paillé, symbol of the apparitions, remains at the heart of local devotion. The church, still active, bears witness to religious fervour and community resistance to historical upheavals. Its Gothic architecture and miraculous history make it a remarkable spiritual and cultural heritage of the region.

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