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La Brèche de Roland (Aragonese Breca Roldán, Spanish Brecha de Rolando) is an impressive natural gap, 40 m across and 100 m high, at an altitude of 2804 m in the steep cliffs of the Cirque de Gavarnie in the
Pyrenees. It forms part of the border between France and Spain.
According to legend the Brèche was cut by Count Roland (a nephew of Charlemagne) with his sword Durendal in an attempt to destroy that sword,
after being defeated during the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. Roland's battle with the Saracens is celebrated in The Song of Roland, a twelfth-century chanson de geste; Roland thrice unsuccessfully tries to destroy
Durendal so it won't fall into pagan hands (ll. 2300ff).
That Roland fought the Saracens is a later adaptation of the historical facts which places Christian Roland and Charlemagne against a Muslim army--in
reality, Count Roland was killed in a rear-guard battle with a band of (equally Christian) Basques who had their eyes on Charlemagne's baggage train.
The Brèche can be reached from the Refuge des Sarradets, a nearby mountain shelter, in about an hour's climb.
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