It is the South of France’s answer to Excalibur, the mythical sword that king arthur legendarily extracted from a rock to obtain the british throne.
However, Rocamadour does not know who managed to tear its famous Durandal sword from the stone in which it had been embedded for centuries, especially since it was 10 meters above the ground.
All the city knows is that one of its main tourist attractions has disappeared. It is presumed stolen and an investigation has been opened.
Durandal was the sword of Roland, a legendary paladin (knight) and officer of Charlemagne In French epic literature, Durandal was, according to legend, indestructible and the sharpest sword in all existence, capable of cutting through giant boulders with a single blow.
Its magical qualities are evoked in the 11th-century epic poem The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving major work of French literature. The only extant manuscript of the Song of Roland in Old French is preserved at Bodleian Library in Oxford.
According to local legend in Rocamadour, in the Lot department, Durendal was embedded in a rock face of the town. It was a major tourist site in a gorge above a tributary of the Dordogne whose shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary attracted pilgrims from many countries for centuries, including kings, bishops and nobles.
A medieval “myth” tells that before being offered to Roland, Charlemagne received Durandal from an angel. Before his death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, Roland tried in vain to break it on the rocks to prevent his enemies from seizing it. He finally threw it into the air to save it. Miraculously traveling hundreds of kilometers, it is said to have embedded itself in the rock face of Rocamadour.
Rocamadour Mayor Dominique Lenfant said the town was devastated. “We will miss Durandal. It has been part of Rocamadour for centuries and there is not a guide who does not show it when they visit,” he told La Dépêche, a French newspaper. “Rocamadour feels like it has been robbed of a part of itself, but even if it is a legend, the destinies of our village and this sword are linked.”
Police are trying to determine how someone was able to steal the sword when it was stuck ten meters high in the rock with no way of accessing it.
It was considered so valuable to the city that when the Cluny Museum wanted to exhibit it in 2011, a city councilor and a security guard accompanied it on its return journey from the Lot to Paris.
Rocamadour was voted the French people’s favourite village in 2016 and is also famous for its eponymous goat’s cheese.
