Touren · Montpellier · Church
Place Saint-Roch
A square dominated by the soaring neo-Gothic Eglise Saint-Roch, built in the 1860s and dedicated to Montpellier's own patron saint, a healer of plague victims and a waystation for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela.
Über diesen Ort
Place Saint-Roch is centred on the tall neo-Gothic church of Saint Roch, raised between 1860 and 1867 to honour the city's beloved patron saint. Roch was born in Montpellier in the fourteenth century and became famous as a healer who cared for plague victims across Europe before falling ill himself, surviving, according to legend, only because a faithful dog brought him bread each day. For a city repeatedly devastated by plague, he became a figure of deep devotion, and renewed cholera epidemics in the nineteenth century inspired the building of this grand sanctuary on the site of the earlier Saint-Paul church, destroyed in 1622. The church was never fully completed, lacking the two lateral spires its architect had planned, and it still serves as a resting place for pilgrims travelling the great route to Santiago de Compostela.
Wissenswertes
- 1867 year — The neo-Gothic church was completed in 1867, after construction began in 1860.
- 1622 year — It stands on the site of the older Saint-Paul church, destroyed in 1622 during the siege of the city.
- 500 deaths per day — At its height, the plague that Saint Roch is said to have tended killed up to 500 people a day in Montpellier.
📍 Place Saint-Roch 1, 34062, Montpellier