Maison natale de Jeanne d'Arc et Bois-Chenu

Domrémy-la-Pucelle

It was in this modest farmer's house that, around 1412, the girl who would become Joan of Arc was born. From the age of 13, the pious young girl is said to have heard for the first time the voices of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, precisely near the Fontaine des Fiévreux (the Fever Spring), in the neighbouring forest of the Bois-Chenu — a spot associated with a fairies' tree where the village children came to play, and whose spring was said to have healing powers. A basilica was raised on this site between 1881 and 1926, after Joan's canonisation in 1920, to mark the precise place where the history of France changed course. The basilica of the Bois-Chenu was built on the spot where, according to tradition, the young shepherdess Joan heard her voices; its crypt preserves the statue of Notre-Dame de Bermont before which she used to pray. The present fountain marking the site, in cast iron with a rocaille basin, comes from the 1895 catalogue of the Union artistique de Vaucouleurs; the statue of Joan spinning at her distaff that surmounts it was only added after 1910, and the water, channelled underground when the basilica was built, no longer springs forth in the open air as it did in the saint's day.

Getting there : Admission charge for the house, basilica free admission

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

Ambient sound