Lille Cathedral

Lille Cathedral
Basilique-cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille de Lille
Lille Cathedral
Basic information
Location Lille,  France
Geographic coordinates Coordinates: 50°38′24″N 3°3′44″E / 50.64000°N 3.06222°E / 50.64000; 3.06222
Affiliation Roman Catholic Church
Rite Roman
Province Bishop of Lille
Region Nord
Ecclesiastical or organizational status Cathedral
Status Active
Architectural description
Architect(s) Charles Leroy, Pierre-Louis Carlier
Architectural type church
Architectural style Neo-Gothic
Groundbreaking 1854
Completed 1999

Lille Cathedral, the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Treille (French: Basilique-cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille de Lille), is a Roman Catholic church and basilica located in Lille, France. It is the cathedral church of the Archdiocese of Lille. An example of Gothic Revival architecture, the cathedral is considered a national monument.

The church was built in honor of the Virgin Mary and takes its name from a 12th-century statue of the saint that has miraculous properties ascribed to it. The project of its construction, which was carried out by a commission that brought together representatives of the clergy and lay members of the upper middle class such as Charles Kolb-Bernard, had a twofold objective. The first was to rebuild a large church in the heart of the city, after the destruction of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter during the French Revolution, which had housed the statue of Our Lady of the Treille for more than six hundred years. The second was to establish an episcopal see in Lille, which then belonged to the Archdiocese of Cambrai. This creation was considered essential to establish the city's status as a religious capital and to serve the growing population during the period of the Industrial Revolution. The building was therefore designated from the outset to be a future cathedral.

Its construction, which spanned nearly a hundred and fifty years, began in 1854 with the laying of a foundation stone and the launch of an international competition for the design of a building inspired by the "Gothic style of the first half of the 13th century". Of the 41 submissions made, the first two prizes were awarded to English projects. However, the idea of entrusting the construction of a church in honor of the Virgin to foreign architects of an Anglican confession raised objections. Therefore, the realization of the project fell into the hands of Lille architect Charles Leroy. The construction of the church faced many difficulties, especially to raise the necessary funds for the continuation of the work. The cathedral was built in stages under the direction of several generations of architects from 1856 to 1975. It was completed in 1999 by the installation of a modern facade, with part of the initial program having been abandoned.

Originally a simple church, it was given the title of minor basilica by Pope Pius X in 1904. In 1913, the Archdiocese of Cambrai was split to create the diocese of Lille, with the basilica serving as its new cathedral. In 2008, following the reorganization of the ecclesiastical provinces of France, the diocese of Lille was elevated to the status of metropolis and the cathedral became a metropolitan cathedral, seat of the Archbishop of Lille.

History

Our Lady of the Treille

The cathedral owes its name to a statue of the Virgin Mary, known as Our Lady of the Treille, which was housed at the Collegiate Church of St. Peter from the beginning of the 13th century and has since been the object of devotion and veneration. The statue is described by Charles Bernard, parish priest of the Church of St. Catherine, as a statue of stone "a little more than two and a half feet high; she has a scepter in her right hand, and from her left she supports the baby Jesus on her knees." He mentions a trellis of gilded wood surrounding the statue and its pedestal, and specifies that the old trellis made of gilded iron was lost in 1792 during the destruction of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter.[1] He speculates that this trellis is what gave the statue its name, although it is more likely that the name came from Treola, a place existing in the 9th century in what is now Lille.[2]

Three series of miraculous events are associated with the statue, occurring in 1254, from 1519 to 1527, and from 1634 to 1638.[3] The miracle of 1254 was the healing of the patients who resorted to her intercession.[4] The miracles in the 16th century were varied and included deliverance from demonic possession, hernias, blindness, paralysis and plague.[5] In 1254, a confraternity of Our Lady of the Treille was canonically established by Pope Alexander IV,[6] and since 1259, an annual procession in honor of Our Lady of the Treille was held, a practice which continued until the French Revolution.[7] In 1634, Jean Le Vasseur, mayor of Lille, consecrated the city to Our Lady of the Treille.[8] In 1667, Louis XIV, who had just taken Flanders, took an oath to respect the freedoms of Lille before the statue.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Bernard 1843, p. 24.
  2. ↑ Vienne 2002, p. 25.
  3. ↑ Bernard 1843, p. 77-89.
  4. ↑ Delassus 1891, p. 40.
  5. ↑ Hautcœur 1900, p. 40-46.
  6. ↑ Bernard 1843, p. 32-34.
  7. ↑ Bernard 1843, p. 35-46.
  8. ↑ Bernard 1843, p. 58-62.
  9. ↑ "Histoire de la statue". Retrieved 16 September 2018.

Bibliography

  • Bernard, Charles-Joseph (1843). Histoire de Notre-Dame de la Treille [History of Our Lady of the Treille] (in French). Defort.
  • Delassus, Henri (1891). Origines de l'archiconfrérie de N-D. de la Treille, patronne de Lille [Origins of the archconfraternity of Our Lady of the Treille, patron saint of Lille] (in French). Desclée De Brouwer.
  • Hautcœur, Édouard (1900). Histoire de Notre-Dame de la Treille, patronne de Lille [History of Our Lady of the Treille, patron saint of Lille] (in French). Imprimerie Lefebvre-Ducrocq.
  • Vienne, Frédéric (2002). Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille: du rêve à la réalité [Our Lady of the Treille: From Dream to Reality] (in French). Yris.
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