Chapelle Notre-Dame de Lourdes
Monument
Chapelle Notre-Dame de Lourdes, located in Bavincourt (Pas-de-Calais), is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Bavincourt, Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 50.2131, 2.5440
- Mérimée Reference
- PA62000032
An eclectic jewel of the Pas-de-Calais region, this neo-Gothic chapel is crowned with a polygonal dome and a lantern, and boasts an astonishingly rich sculpted decoration: gargoyles, pinnacles and ribbed vaults that will take your breath away.
History
Nestling in the peaceful village of Bavincourt, on the edge of the Artois region, the Notre-Dame de Lourdes chapel is an architectural work of surprising formal ambition. Built at the very end of the 19th century to plans drawn up by the Artois architect Alexandre Grigny, it is immediately striking for its almost monumental proportions, unexpected for a building of this type, and for the profusion of its sculpted decoration, which contrasts with the sobriety of the surrounding rural landscape. What makes this monument truly unique is the creative tension between its resolutely modern structure - a compact quadrangular plan, a polygonal dome topped by a slender lantern - and an ornamental vocabulary drawn from the Gothic repertoire: elaborate cornices, tapering pinnacles, rosettes framed by composite columns and four neo-Gothic gargoyles, one of which, in the shape of a leonine monster, seems to stand guard from above. This eclectic synthesis testifies to the Belle Époque's taste for decorative profusion and skilful use of historical references. The interior holds some equally remarkable surprises. Beneath the ribbed octagonal vault falling on sculpted pendentives and arches, the main space exudes an atmosphere of contemplation and light. A large semi-circular archway opens onto the choir, whose semi-circular apse, covered by a ribbed half-dome, rests on engaged columns with foliage capitals. The whole gives the place a dignity that you wouldn't suspect from the outside. Since 1990, the chapel has enjoyed a special liturgical life every year: on Ascension Day, a mass is celebrated in the open air in front of the façade before the departure of a procession of pilgrims, perpetuating a living link between the monument and the local community. For visitors, this is an ideal opportunity to discover the building in its original devotional context, enlivened by song and collective contemplation.
Architecture
The Notre-Dame de Lourdes chapel has a simple quadrangular plan with a single storey, crowned by a polygonal dome surmounted by a slender lantern, giving the building an instantly recognisable silhouette in the Artesian landscape. The rigorously symmetrical side façades are organised around two geminated bays topped by a rose window and a triangular tympanum, the tip of which extends beyond the roofline, creating a vertical effect accentuated by median recessed buttresses. The decorative vocabulary is remarkably generous: moulded cornices, pinnacles, elaborate gables, composite columns and four neo-Gothic gargoyles, including one sculpted in the shape of a leonine monster, enliven every surface and reveal the hand of an ornamentalist well-versed in the lessons of medieval Gothic. Inside, the ribbed octagonal vault is the centrepiece of the spatial arrangement: its pendentives, suspended from sculpted bases, create an elegant transition between the square plan of the nave and the curvilinear shape of the dome. A large semicircular archway opens onto the choir, whose blind semi-circular apse is covered by a ribbed half-dome resting on columns set into the masonry, with medieval-inspired foliage capitals. Two niches flank a larger central niche housing the altar, in a tripartite arrangement reminiscent of the apsidioles of Romanesque chapels, but with a decidedly eclectic decorative logic.
Related Figures
Alexandre Grigny — architecte arrageois, auteur des plans de la chapelle, décédé avant l'achèvement des travauxBernadette Soubirous — figure tutélaire indirecte, dont les apparitions de 1858 à Lourdes sont à l'origine du mouvement dévotionnel ayant inspiré la construction de la chapelleMonseigneur Lequette — évêque d'Arras, dont le diocèse encadrait les cérémonies religieuses de la région à l'époque de la bénédiction en 1880Les donateurs et notables locaux de Bavincourt et Saulty — commanditaires anonymes de l'édifice, représentatifs de la bourgeoisie dévote artésienne de la fin du XIXe siècle
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Chapelle Notre-Dame de Lourdes located?
Chapelle Notre-Dame de Lourdes is located in Bavincourt, Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France region, France.
When was Chapelle Notre-Dame de Lourdes built?
Chapelle Notre-Dame de Lourdes dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Chapelle Notre-Dame de Lourdes open to visitors?
Chapelle Notre-Dame de Lourdes is currently closed to visitors.