Les Bois du sanctuaire de Piétat

In the Middle Ages, near Piétat, two chapels on the Chemin des Crêtes, a variant of the Way of Saint James, welcomed large numbers of pilgrims. One was in Narcastet, dedicated to Saint Ambrose, where stunted children were taken. The other was in Baliros, where relics of Saint Peter were kept to cure rabies. Not far from there and much later, a shepherd who had an apparition of the Virgin Mary on these same heights enabled the Catholic Church to re-establish itself in Bearn, which had become Protestant following the Wars of Religion. With the construction of the first church in the 17th century, Notre Dame de Piétat became a major Marian pilgrimage site long before Lourdes.