Chapelle Notre-Dame du Chêne

Bar-sur-Seine

It all begins with a tree. In the forest of the Counts of Bar, tradition tells that a young shepherd one day discovered, nestled in the hollow of an oak, a tiny statuette of the Virgin: twelve centimetres of boxwood depicting Our Lady of Mercy holding the Child. Carried to the church in the town, the statuette is said to have returned miraculously to its tree several times — a sign that the Virgin wished to be honoured there, in the heart of the woods. Tradition even has it that Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, whose abbey lies only a few leagues away, came to pray at the foot of the oak in 1153, the year of his death. Popular devotion never died out: a first chapel was authorised by the king in 1669, replaced in 1724 by a wooden building with a bell tower, and then, on 29 July 1865, the first stone of the present chapel was laid. Its singularity is unique in Champagne: the old oak, at least five centuries old, was not felled but literally enshrined in the sanctuary — its trunk forms a niche above the altar, where the miraculous statuette still rests. A tree become a church, or a church grown up around a tree: pilgrims and walkers still come to see for themselves that the boundary between forest and sanctuary can be dissolved. A moving destination for a walk from Bar-sur-Seine, between the vineyards of the Côte des Bar and the great woods.

Getting there : At the edge of the forest known as the Garenne des Comtes, along the Bois Brûlés forest ride, towards Chaource on the way out of Bar-sur-Seine. Free access to the surroundings; the chapel is opened for visits and times of pilgrimage (enquire at the parish or the Côte des Bar tourist office).

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

Ambient sound