Basilique Notre-Dame-des-Enfants

Châteauneuf-sur-Cher

In 1861, the Abbé Jacques Ducros arrived as parish priest at Châteauneuf-sur-Cher and found his church all but in ruins. Without a fortune, he had an idea that would touch the whole country: to ask every child in France for two sous to rebuild the house of God. The small coins poured in from every diocese, accompanied by thousands of letters from schoolchildren, naive and fervent. In 1866, a little girl of ten was the first to use, in her letter, the name "Notre-Dame des Enfants", Our Lady of the Children. The title won everyone over: a confraternity of Notre-Dame-des-Enfants was founded the same year, and it is under this title, unique in France, that the Virgin has been honoured here. The first stone was blessed on 29 August 1869; the church, designed by the architect Édouard Marganne and then raised under the direction of Brother Hariolf, opened for worship in 1879 and was completed in 1886: a neo-Gothic vessel eighty metres long, its nave rising to twenty-one metres, built quite literally sou by sou by the children of the country. In 1896, Pope Leo XIII raised it to the rank of basilica. The walls have become covered with ex-voto plaques, and people still come to entrust children — sick, longed-for, lost — to Our Lady; the great pilgrimage takes place every year on the first Sunday in May. The gallery organ, which left the workshops of the celebrated organ-builder Cavaillé-Coll in 1889, is listed as a historic monument and rings out in concert in summer.

Getting there : Basilica dominating the town of Châteauneuf-sur-Cher, on the Bourges – Saint-Amand-Montrond road (D2144), about 25 km south of Bourges. Parking nearby; interior open during the day.

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

Ambient sound