Heritage Days in Vielsalm

Around the cave of Our Dame Une representative replicas of the Marian grotto tradition Following the recognition of the apparitions of Lourdes by the Church in 1962 and the growth of pilgrimage after 1873, the image of the grotto becomes a spiritual model propagated locally. Parishes, villages and religious communities reproduce this place by the thousands across the 4 continents and singularly in Belgium. Simple shrines or architectures in artificial or natural stone erected in a garden, a wood or near a church, dominated by a statue of the Virgin, associated with a prayer space (with benches, candles, sometimes ex-votos), integrated into a calm environment, conducive to recollection, these places are intended to be micro-sanctuaries. These are places of invocation and Marian devotion, stages of religious processions, places of memory (vows, healings, thanks), spaces of popular spirituality. The replica of Vielsalm is built on the initiative of Dean Hallet, in 1930. Condemned to be shot by the Germans in 1914 for acts of resistance, he escapes death and promises to create a grandiose work in thanks for the miraculous protection granted. The grotto is this work: a 1/4 scale replica containing real stones from Lourdes as well as a reservoir intended to receive holy water from Lourdes. The multiplication of grottos: An investigation around the 1000 pieces of Lourdes in Belgium! In 2023, the journalist Colin Delfosse produces a report in which he examines a Belgian peculiarity. Our country records more than 1000 replicas of the grotto of Lourdes. Why such multiplication and in what social, cultural and economic context does this occur At that time, Belgium is experiencing unprecedented industrial power. Workers' associations are asserting themselves and becoming structured. Consciences and spaces are progressively dechristianizing. Faced with this red peril, the Church will opt for a strategy of reconquest through... the Virgin. Traveling to Lourdes being expensive and the apparitions in Belgium later, the choice is therefore made to bring Lourdes to Belgium. At the same time, an invention that will revolutionize the construction of "rocaille"! Hundreds of grottos will thus be erected from Dinant to De Haan via Vielsalm. CONFERENCE • FREE VISIT OF THE GROTTO Sunday conference: 1:30 PM (1h) Free visits - grotto: 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM Lecturer > Colin DELFOSSE, journalist & reporter, co-founder of the Médor Conférence magazine: Library • Rue de l'Hôtel de Ville 9 • 6690 Vielsalm Grotte: Rue de la Grotte 19 • 6690 Vielsalm Organisation > Racinothèque • 080 21 70 45 • racinotheque@bibliotheque-vielsalm.be