Camino Photo of the Day: Castle on the Outside, Church on the Inside

Walking into the castle in Rudelle, you would be forgiven for wondering how you suddenly teleported into a Gothic church. The history of this building is complicated. Rudelle was once a fortified village – a bastide founded about 1250 – and this particular building was the hospital chapel, dating to the second half of the 13th century. It was not originally fortified. The fortifications (and the second floor) were added about a century later, during the Hundred Years’ War. Around 1470 or so, it became the village parish church under the name of Saint-Martial. Seems appropriate. The church was significantly restored at the turn of the 20th century, and it seem that another restoration is planned.

Date: 31 August 2023
Place: Rudelle, between Lacapelle-Marival and Gramat, Lot Département, Region of Occitanie, France

Maps!

The site I’ve been using for my daily maps, Gronze.com, while otherwise great, unfortunately doesn’t have maps for this variant. So here’s a map from my book Practical Pilgrimage showing the entirety of the three main variants and larger sub-variants. I walked the GR6 from Figeac to Rocamadour and the GR46 on to Cahors.