Basilique Saint-Mathurin de Larchant

Larchant

Larchant, a large sandstone village at the foot of the Fontainebleau massif, lived from the 12th to the 16th century to the rhythm of one of the greatest pilgrimages of the Paris Basin. According to a Life written in the 10th century, Saint Mathurin was born here in the late 3rd century, was ordained priest at the age of twenty and, in Rome, delivered the daughter of the Emperor Maximian from a demon. His relics, brought back to his homeland, made his tomb the recourse of the "insane", of epileptics and of the possessed: people came to spend the night there, sometimes in restraints, in the hope of a return to reason, madness being understood at the time as possession. The canons of Notre-Dame de Paris, lords of the place, raised here between the late 12th and the early 15th century a church out of all proportion to a village: 57 m long, vaults at 18 m, a 50 m tower visible from the whole plain. Louis XI in 1467, Charles VIII in 1486, Francis I in 1519 and 1541, and then Henry IV in 1599, came here on pilgrimage. The fire started by the troops of the Earl of Pembroke in 1568, then the collapse of the north-west pier on 25 September 1675, left the building half-ruined: the nave is today open to the sky, which gives the place its strange power. Listed as early as 1843, the church has been restored in successive campaigns since the 1980s and has received the title of basilica; the Whitsun pilgrimage still takes place there.

Wikipédia — Basilique Saint-Mathurin de Larchant ↗

Getting there : Larchant is 12 km south-west of Fontainebleau, by the D16 from La Chapelle-la-Reine or via Nemours. Parking in the place du Pilori, at the foot of the building, in the centre of the village; free admission during the day. No railway station on the spot: nearest stop Nemours-Saint-Pierre, then about ten kilometres. The Saint-Mathurin spring survives about 700 m north-west of the village (48.2890 / 2.5932). The Whitsun pilgrimage is the best time to see the place alive.

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

Ambient sound