Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Treille
Church
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Treille, located in Lille (Nord), is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Lille, Nord, Hauts-de-France
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 50.6402, 3.0628
- Mérimée Reference
- PA59000146
A bold, unfinished masterpiece, Notre-Dame de la Treille combines 19th-century Gothic with a contemporary façade designed by Carlier, and houses Max Ingrand's legendary translucent pink marble stained glass windows.
History
The cathedral of Notre-Dame de la Treille is one of the most unique religious buildings in France, born of a collective wish and centuries of popular fervour. Erected on the Motte Madame, the mythical site where legend has it the island that gave rise to Lille in the first place, it embodies the soul and ambition of a city that, in the 19th century, wanted to build a monument to match its industrial and spiritual influence. What you discover as you approach it is both disconcerting and fascinating: a resolutely contemporary façade, in stark contrast to the neo-Gothic nave inherited from the academicism of the Second Empire. What makes Notre-Dame de la Treille truly unique is precisely this creative tension between two centuries and two aesthetics. The long gestation period of the building - begun in 1856, still unfinished a century later - gave architect Peter Rice and visual artist Carlier the opportunity to make a radical contemporary intervention in 1999: a façade of white marble and translucent resin that, in the low evening light, transforms into a luminous screen of unreal beauty. Inside, Max Ingrand's stained glass windows, installed between 1963 and 1966, bathe the choir in a colourful light of rare poetry. The experience of visiting the church is one of dialogue between the past and the present. You stroll under the slender neo-Gothic vaults, inspired by the great cathedrals of Champagne, before looking up at the contemporary roses on the western façade, which filter the northern light with unexpected grace. The miraculous statue of Notre-Dame de la Treille, a twelfth-century treasure that survived the Revolution hidden by a courageous chaplain, still sits at the heart of the sanctuary, linking the architectural present to nine centuries of popular devotion. Located in the heart of Vieux-Lille, a stone's throw from the Grand-Place and the lively district of Vieux-Lille, the building is set in an urban setting steeped in history. The square in front of it, lined with Flemish facades characteristic of the capital of French Flanders, provides the necessary distance to appreciate the astonishing western facade in its entirety, before entering an interior space where the height of the vaults naturally imposes silence and contemplation.
Architecture
Notre-Dame de la Treille belongs to the academic neo-Gothic movement of the Second Empire, but its architectural style became richer and more complex over the course of its exceptionally long construction. The first projected elevation was directly inspired by Chartres cathedral, while subsequent developments in the project were based on the model of Notre-Dame de Paris, resulting in a building that dialogues with the great Gothic cathedrals of the Paris basin while at the same time asserting its own personality. The plan is that of a classical Gothic cathedral, with a nave with side aisles, a projecting transept, a choir with an ambulatory and radiating chapels. The height of the vaults in the central nave gives the interior a striking verticality, typical of the Gothic ideal. The interior features several elements of great artistic quality. The stained glass windows by Max Ingrand, installed between 1963 and 1966, are one of the most important stained glass works of the twentieth century in northern France. They bathe the choir and chapels in a colourful light of rare intensity. The statue of Notre-Dame de la Treille, a masterpiece of late Romanesque sculpture from the 12th century, remains the spiritual and artistic treasure of the monument, displayed in a position of honour in the choir. The western façade, the work of Carlier and Peter Rice inaugurated in 1999, is the most spectacular and most talked-about architectural feature. Composed of panels of white Salamanca marble cut into thin translucent strips and mounted on a metal frame, it is a technical and aesthetic feat: transparent in daylight, it transforms at sunset into an immense stained-glass window radiating a warm golden light into the interior, creating a visual effect that is absolutely unique in the French cathedral landscape.
Related Figures
Guillaume Lefebvre d'Hennin — notable lillois qui recueillit la statue miraculeuse pendant la Révolution et la confia à la paroisse Sainte-CatherineMax Ingrand — maître verrier français, auteur des vitraux du chœur posés entre 1963 et 1966Peter Rice — ingénieur-architecte irlandais, cofondateur de RFR, concepteur de la façade contemporaine en marbre translucideCarlier — plasticien français chargé dès 1990 de concevoir la façade occidentale en rupture avec le néo-gothiqueLe chapelain de la Treille — dont l'identité reste partiellement obscure, il sauva la statue miraculeuse en l'achetant en 1792 lors de la RévolutionLes chanoines de la collégiale Saint-Pierre — commanditaires de la première chapelle dédiée à Notre-Dame de la Treille vers 1238-1254
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Treille located?
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Treille is located in Lille, Nord department, Hauts-de-France region, France.
When was Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Treille built?
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Treille dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Treille open to visitors?
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Treille is currently closed to visitors.