The Calvaire de Bétharram (Calvary of Bétharram)

In the Béarnais dialect, Bétharram means beautiful branch.

This name recalls the legend when the Virgin Mary appeared to a young girl who was about to drown in the River Gave de Pau. In the legend, Mary handed her a thin branch that helped her to reach the shore safely!

Over the centuries, several chapels were built in this place and it became a place of pilgrimage devoted to the Virgin who saved the girl.

During the Wars of Religion, in the 16th century, the Sanctuary of Bétharram was completely destroyed by the Protestants, who reigned supreme in the territory of Navarre at that time.

With the return to peace and the accession of King Henry IV to the throne, Navarre became part of the Kingdom of France and the two religions coexisted once again.

It was under these circumstances, in 1616, that a second miracle occurred in Bétharram.

A few weeks after a new cross was placed on the top of the hill, farm workers on the opposite hill witnessed an extraordinary spectacle.

While the sky was clear, in mid-afternoon, the new cross was seemingly pushed by a mysterious force and it staggered, fell to the ground and then stood up by itself.
It was then surrounded by a dazzling light and surmounted by a resplendent crown.

This exceptional event was seen as the definitive sign that the Catholic faith had returned to the region, confirmed a few months later by a decree of the Regent Marie de Médicis authorizing Bétharram to reconstruct its chapel.

Father Hubert Charpentier was in charge of the building work. He first envisaged a calvary of fourteen stations topped by three crosses, depicting this miracle.

The Sanctuary came back to life at the beginning of the 19th century, mainly due to the presence of many important figures who were holidaying in the Pyrenees.

Queen Hortense of Holland left a royal alm for the reconstruction of the Calvary, while the Duchess of Angouleme, daughter of Louis XVI, and later the Duchess of Berry, came to pray there.

It was then that Michel Garicoïtswas appointed the Superior of the Seminary of Bétharram, in 1825. He founded the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus there.

The monastery was ravaged by fire in 1839 and Michel Garicoïts undertook to have it completely rebuilt, as well as the Calvary that had disappeared during the Revolution.

To do this, he called upon Alexandre Renoir, brother of the famous painter Auguste.
The sculptor designed a new Calvary monument, this one with 15 rather than 14 stations.

Michel Garicoïts died in 1863, without seeing the results of his finished work.
A chapel in the form of a rotunda was added to the Way of the Cross, it was dedicated to the beatified in 1823 and then canonized in 1947.

In 2020, the chapel began to be restored, with support from the Fondation du Patrimoine (Cultural Heritage Foundation).

The Calvary was finally completed in 1873 and was given a solemn blessing on September 14 of that year.

At the 15th station, at the top of the building, there is a Fabisch sculpture of Jesus risen from the dead.

Once the Calvary was completed, Bétharram became a very important pilgrimage site, as this postcard from the early 20th century shows.

September is the most important month for pilgrims as it marks the commemoration of the miracle of the cross in 1616.

Pilgrims come with their families and dressed in their Sunday best to pay their respects at the site.
They are pictured here in front of the third station of the Calvary.

Here is the third station shown in 2020 following some restoration work that was supported by the Fondation du Patrimoine (Cultural Heritage Foundation).

This station depicts the trial of Jesus before Caiaphas and the doctors of the Law.

There is so much people traffic there that street vendors set up at the foot of the Calvary to sell their goods.

The municipality was even forced, on July 28, 1891, to issue the following police order: "Merchants in front of the Chapel of Bétharram are forbidden to approach the visitors." Visitors were shocked by the actions of the candle sellers as they were trying to force them into buying from them.

Here is the second station, depicting the betrayal of Christ by Judas.

Like the rest of the Calvary, it received support from the Fondation du Patrimoine (Cultural Heritage Foundation) for restoration works in 2020.

During World War I, the Sanctuary of Bétharram played its part in the national war effort by becoming a temporary hospital.

Overview of the last three Stations of the Cross and the Pietà (the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus).