Basilique Notre-Dame de l'Épine

L'Épine

A Flamboyant Gothic basilica of cathedral proportions planted in the middle of a village of 685 inhabitants, in the chalk plain of Champagne: the contrast is the first shock of the visit. According to an account set down in writing in the 17th century, around 1400, on the eve of the Annunciation, shepherds discovered a statue of the Virgin and Child in a thorn bush blazing with an extraordinary light — a radiance said by tradition to have been visible more than ten leagues around. The episode took place against the background of the Hundred Years' War and the plague epidemics, and was at once read as a sign of protection; the pilgrimage is attested from 1405 and the offerings financed the building work from 1406 to 1527. The thorn bush is an explicit echo of Moses' burning bush, a classic Marian image since the 4th century, and in the Middle Ages the hawthorn was the Virgin's plant. The venerated statue survives, and a replica is displayed in the basilica. The building is also famous for its gargoyles, among the most expressive in France: a grimacing bestiary, demons and grotesque figures that popular reading interprets as the vices driven out of the sanctuary. Listed as a monument historique as early as 1840 and raised to the rank of basilica in 1914, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.

La légende de L'Épine — Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de l'Épine ↗

Getting there : In the village of L'Épine, 8 km north-east of Châlons-en-Champagne by the RD3. The coordinates correspond to the village, which the basilica dominates entirely. Building open for free visits all year round; diocesan shrine attached to the diocese of Châlons.

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

Ambient sound