Notre-Dame-d'Arosse Chapel dans les Landes

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Origin and history

The chapel Notre-Dame d'Arosse, locally called capèra en gascon, is a Catholic religious building located in the commune of Ygos-Saint-Saturnin in the Landes department. It houses a painting depicting the Assumption, framed with columns, as well as a tabernacle decorated with a naive Christ and an angelic head. This place was the scene of a very frequent pilgrimage between 1654 and 1657, shortly after the Fronde, attracting many faithful and important alms. The processions, led by the parish priest, linked the chapel to the nearby Saint-Clair fountain.

The Saint-Clair fountain (houn Sen-Cla in gascon) is composed of three sources, each associated with specific curative virtues: the central source treated sciatics and rheumatism, the one on the right with headaches and eyes, and the one on the left favored the walking of children. A local gasconic expression evokes this tradition: "Los goyats maucagnats van se banhar a la houn de Sen Cla" (children with torso legs will bathe at the fountain of Saint-Clair). These pilgrimages took place on September 8, the day of the Nativity of Mary.

Although pilgrimages have marked local history, especially after the disturbances of the Fronde, the chapel and its fountain remain symbols of popular devotion and empirical medical traditions in the region. Their legacy persists in the collective memory of surrounding villages, testifying to the importance of sacred places in the rural life of the Old Regime.

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