This is a study of the renewing of pilgrimage sites in France after the religious wars of the sixteenth century. In it, Reinburg explores how clergy, local people and pilgrims constructed shrines ‘as natural, legendary and historic places whose authority might provide a new foundation for Catholic life’ (p. 1). The book is a study of origins and about place, the association of shrines with history, landscape and nature, rather than about pilgrimage as an experience. The work is divided into two sections. The first part, ‘Legendary Locations’, takes three case studies of shrines and explores their origins and restoration across the period of the wars of religion. These are Sainte-Reine in Burgundy, a cult centre of an early Christian martyr, associated with a Roman site and a healing fountain; and two Marian shrines in the Pyrenees, Notre Dame de Garaison and Notre Dame de Betharrem, situated in a region that was heavily contested during the religious wars; and the internationally-known shrine of the medieval Black Virgin of Notre Dame of Le Puy-en-Velay. (The section in this chapter on the city's history of the Wars of Religion through the eyes of local memorialists, Estienne Medicis and the two Jean Burels, is particularly fine.) Each chapter is a detailed, intricately-observed, micro-history of the Catholic Reformation in a specific space. Part ii, ‘Text, Territoriality and Truth’ is about Catholic Reformation print culture, in a study of shrine books published by their chaplains. In the seventeenth century pilgrim shrines were ‘created’ by a presence in the world of print. Authors wrote works that combined history, myth and archive to prove to readers that their shrines were authentic and holy. There was a conscious defence of Catholicism, partly through demonstrations of antiquity through scholarly research into origins, because age gave a credibility to tradition. Authors also created a detailed record or archive of contemporary miracles to attract pilgrims. In Reinburg's words, antiquity and materiality were key to the success of these shrines. Four themes structure the work. Firstly, the great significance of landscape and place to cult centres. Reinburg demonstrates how shrines were constructed out of specific natural and landscape contexts. Thus, Sainte-Reine and the Pyrenean shrines were near springs and medicinal waters, while Notre Dame was set amidst dramatic volcanic peaks. Each place was curated so that visitors were close to nature but shielded from the dangers of real wilderness. The second theme is that of collaboration, for shrines were built with the participation of many contributors, religious and secular elites and also local communities, pilgrims and authors. Reinburg comments that a shrine landscape was communally owned land, a resource open to all and belonging to all. A third theme is that of cosmic mapping. Shrines were located in physical space, with reference to mountains, rivers, forests, fields and roads, but they also reached outward to God in the cosmos. They were miraculous places that linked human beings to God and the saints. Finally, Storied places shows how ordinary Catholics restored and remade their religious worlds after the wars of religion. This is an excellent book which merits a wide readership. It displays deep scholarship, sophisticated use of a wide range of sources including site visits – which are illustrated – and it is written with clarity and gracefulness. It is a seminal essay, which makes one reflect on spirituality and landscape in new ways.