Basilique Notre-Dame de Pitié

La Chapelle-Saint-Laurent

On a height of the Gâtine known as Pitié, tradition relates that a ploughman found a statue of the Virgin holding on her knees Christ taken down from the cross — a 15th-century pietà. A chapel was built to house it, and the pilgrimage was born. Devastated during the Wars of Religion, the sanctuary was rebuilt and then solemnly consecrated; in 1650, in the spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul, a confraternity of charity was founded there to visit and care for the sick in their homes. The Revolution came in its turn and mutilated the venerated statue. It was a 19th-century priest, Father Laurentin, who brought the place back to life: foundation stone of a new bell tower in 1856, then, from 1865, a monumental calvary and seven fountains raised at the far end of the esplanade. On 21 September 1873, the Virgin of Pitié was solemnly crowned before an immense crowd — and since that date, the September pilgrimages, around the feast of the Nativity of Mary, have been among the best attended in Poitou. The present neo-Gothic basilica, begun in 1891, was completed only in the 20th century; its spires can be seen from afar across the bocage plateau. People still come to Pitié to pray to the Mother of Sorrows, to drink at the fountains of the calvary and to walk the esplanade where so many generations of Gâtinais have brought their sorrows and their thanks.

Getting there : Sanctuary at the place called Pitié (allée de la Basilique), about 3 km south of the village of La Chapelle-Saint-Laurent, signposted from the D949bis between Parthenay and Bressuire. Vast esplanade with monumental calvary and fountains; parking on site.

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

Ambient sound