Editing Lourdes (section)

===Modern Age===
[[File:Vue de Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées) - Fonds Ancely - B315556101 A MALBOS 2 005.jpg|thumb|[[Waggon]] pulled by two oxen in front of [[Château fort de Lourdes]] in 1843, by [[Eugène de Malbos]]]]
During the late 16th century, France was ravaged by the [[French Wars of Religion|Wars of Religion]] between Roman Catholics and [[Huguenots]]. In 1569, [[Count Gabriel de Montgomery]] attacked the nearby town of [[Tarbes]] when [[Queen Jeanne d'Albret of Navarre]] established Protestantism there. In 1592, the town was taken by forces of the Catholic League, and the Catholic faith was re-established. In 1607, Lourdes was incorporated into the Kingdom of France.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

The castle became a jail under [[Louis XV]] but, in 1789, the Estates General ordered the liberation of prisoners. Following the rise of [[Napoleon]] in 1803, he again made the Castle a state jail.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} Towards the end of the [[Peninsular War]] between France, Spain, Portugal, and Britain in 1814, British and Allied forces under the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]] entered France and took control of the region. They pursued [[Marshall Soult]]'s army, defeating the French near the adjoining town of Tarbes, before the final battle outside [[Toulouse]] on 10 April 1814 brought the war to an end.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Up until 1858, Lourdes was a sleepy country town with a population of around 4,000<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 February 2008 |title=Saint Bernadette's First Vision at Lourdes |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/saint-bernadette%E2%80%99s-first-vision-lourdes |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=History Today}}</ref> hosting an infantry garrison in the castle, a transit point to the waters at [[Barèges]], [[Cauterets]], [[Luz-Saint-Sauveur]] and [[Bagnères-de-Bigorre]], and for mountaineers on their way to Gavarnie.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Then on 11 February 1858, the 14-year-old local girl [[Bernadette Soubirous]] claimed a beautiful lady appeared to her in the remote grotto of Massabielle. The lady later identified herself as the [[Immaculate Conception]] and the faithful believed her to be the [[Blessed Virgin Mary]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Laurentin |first=René |title=Bernadette vous parle |date=April 15, 1999 |publisher=[[Médiaspaul]] |isbn=978-2712202897 |location=Paris |pages=98 |language=fr |trans-title=Bernadette Speaks: A Life of St. Bernadette Soubirous in Her Own Words |url=https://archive.org/details/bernadettespeaks0000laur/page/n7/mode/2up}}</ref> She appeared 18 times, and by 1859 thousands of pilgrims were visiting Lourdes. A statue of [[Our Lady of Lourdes]] was erected at the site in 1864.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

During World War II, pilgrimage to Lourdes declined dramatically, but Lourdes became a focus for religious [[French Resistance|resistance]]. Refugees from [[Lorraine]] visited in 1941, led by their own exiled bishop Joseph Jean Heintz. Lourdes was the destination for a tour of the statue of Our Lady of [[Boulogne-sur-Mer|Boulogne]] (known as Le Grand Retour) which aimed to secure the spiritual salvation of France. In 1944, a peace pilgrimage to Lourdes took place. Even when war ended, pilgrimages took a while to return to their pre-war levels as the usual trains and pilgrimage ships were in use elsewhere, or destroyed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hurlock |first=Kathryn |date=2022-01-02 |title=Peace, Politics, and Piety: Catholic Pilgrimage in Wartime Europe, 1939–1945 |journal=War & Society |language=en |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=36–52 |doi=10.1080/07292473.2022.2021754 |s2cid=246695850 |issn=0729-2473 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Since the apparitions, Lourdes has become one of the world's leading Catholic [[Marian shrine]]s. [[Pope John Paul II]] visited twice, on 15 August 1983, and 14–15 August 2004. In 2007, [[Pope Benedict XVI]] authorized special [[indulgences]] to mark the 150th anniversary of Our Lady of Lourdes.<ref>{{cite news |title=Pope approves Lourdes indulgences |work=BBC News |date=6 December 2007 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7131088.stm |access-date=6 December 2007 |archive-date=15 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115101025/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7131088.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Lourdes1994-1.jpg|thumb|Lourdes 1994]]