Basilique Notre-Dame de Marienthal

Haguenau

Marienthal, the "valley of Mary", is the oldest Marian sanctuary in Alsace and its most frequented pilgrimage. Around 1240, the knight Albert of Haguenau renounced the world and withdrew as a hermit into the forest of Haguenau, beside a statue of the Virgin in Majesty; he set about building a convent and a church there, completed around 1256, and his brothers devoted their lands to the project. From 1257 the Williamite monks took over and made the little valley a radiant spiritual centre, endowed with papal indulgences from 1402. In the early 15th century appeared the two miraculous statues that still make the sanctuary's heart beat: Our Lady of Joy, a standing Virgin carrying the Child, and the deeply moving Pietà, Our Lady of Sorrows. Hidden by the faithful at every war, they have come through six centuries of turmoil intact. Queen Marie Leszczyńska, wife of Louis XV, showered the sanctuary with crowns, mantles and golden candelabra. Closed in 1793, the church saw pilgrims go on praying outside, before its walled-up doors. The 19th century marked the high point: the solemn crowning of the Pietà in 1859 before ten thousand pilgrims, then the building of the present church (1863–1866), raised to the rank of minor basilica by Leo XIII in 1892. To this day, people from Alsace, Lorraine and Germany flock here for the great Marian feasts, in an unbroken tradition of more than seven centuries.

Getting there : Village of Marienthal, place de la Basilique, 5 km south-east of the centre of Haguenau (D48); Marienthal TER railway station on the Strasbourg–Haguenau line, basilica open every day.

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

Ambient sound