Notre Dame des Laves — Attraction in Saint-Benoît

You don't have to be a believer to appreciate how special a building standing in the middle of a river of lava is. Pretty little place inside and some newspaper clips and other info at the back of the church. No guide on site. Free of charge and plenty of parking available next door. The extend of the miracle is obviously evident on the outside Across the road is a tourist trap where you can get junk food. From our limited knowledge of French it looks like there is also a museum in that complex, closed when we were there on a Friday. From here drive south towards St Philippe on the "Lava Road" to appreciate the full destructive power...

N2, Piton Sainte-Rose 97439, Réunion

In Piton-Sainte-Rose, a district in the municipality of Sainte-Rose at the foot of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano on the island's East Coast, stands a small church, now renamed Our Lady of the Lavas (Notre-Dame-des-Laves), which was miraculously spared during the 1977 lava flow, which encircled the building without consuming it! The impressive mass of hardened lava that can still be seen at the entrance to the church provides a reminder of this incredible moment in...

A place that makes people ask a lot of questions, this church has withstood the face of lava and if you visit it you can see the lava surrounding the church from everywhere! Some consider it a miracle and therefore many religious people visit it! Some consider them to be natural causes due to the difference in temperatures between inside and outside and the quality of construction! In general, the...