Basilique et sanctuaire de Sainte-Anne-d'Auray

Sainte-Anne-d'Auray

Sainte-Anne-d'Auray is the foremost place of pilgrimage in Brittany and the third in France after Lourdes and Lisieux. It all began with a peasant of Keranna, Yvon (Yves) Nicolazic, born in 1591, who from August 1623 declared that he saw in his fields a hand holding a torch, then a woman of light; on 25 July 1624 she is said to have named herself in Breton: "Me zo Anna, mamm Mari" — "I am Anne, mother of Mary". On the night of 7–8 March 1625, guided by a flame and accompanied by a few neighbours, Nicolazic dug up in the field of Bocenno an old statue of Saint Anne, reputed to come from a chapel destroyed centuries earlier. Despite a wary ecclesiastical inquiry, the cult prevailed: the first chapel was blessed on 4 July 1628 and the Carmelites arrived on 29 September 1633 to oversee an already considerable pilgrimage. The present building, neo-Gothic, is the work of the architect Édouard Deperthes, built from 1866 to 1872 and consecrated in 1877; its octagonal bell tower rises to 75 m and it received the title of minor basilica by papal brief of Pius IX in the 1870s. The site preserves the Scala Sancta built by the Carmelites in 1662 and the monumental fountain of Ker-Anna raised in 1898 on the spot of the first visions. John Paul II celebrated Mass here on 20 September 1996 before a crowd estimated at 100,000; the sanctuary now receives more than 800,000 visitors a year, 20,000 to 30,000 of them for the great pardon — the Breton pilgrimage festival — of 26 July alone.

Sanctuaire de Sainte-Anne-d'Auray — Histoire ↗

Getting there : In the heart of the village of Sainte-Anne-d'Auray, 6 km north-east of Auray, on the D17. Coordinates at the centre of the village, which the basilica dominates entirely (almost exact). Large car park, SNCF station at Sainte-Anne on the Vannes–Auray–Quimper line. Basilica, esplanade, Scala Sancta, fountain and treasury freely accessible all year round; great pardon on 25 and 26 July.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound