Basilique Notre-Dame de Bonsecours

The Basilique Notre-Dame de Bonsecours is a Gothic Revival basilica in Bonsecours near Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France. It is the first church in France to be built in the Gothic Revival style. The church is richly decorated, with the windows, sculptures and other elements often carrying the name or coat of arms of a donor.

Design

The basilica's design and construction were carefully supervised by the Abbé Victor Godefroy (1799–1868), the Bonsecours parish priest, who chose the Gothic style and raised the funds. Godefroy and the donors may have been drawn to this style from the time of Saint Louis (Louis IX of France: r. 1226–1270) because it represented a society they thought was organized on a Christian basis.[1] Godefroy had been a textile manufacturer before becoming a priest, and had experience with other building projects. His fund raising efforts were helped by his close friendship with the future cardinal Gustave Maximilien Juste de Croÿ-Solre, archbishop of Rouen.

The architect Jacques-Eugène Barthélémy(fr) may have had a background in engineering. He had worked on partial reconstructions, but this was the first new church he had built.[2] It is not known who trained Barthélemy as an architect, but he had sketched churches around France, including Reims Cathedral. He did not obtain approval for his design from the government's Conseil des batiments civils, which rejected Gothic designs for other proposed churches at the time. He made his design before Eugène Viollet-le-Duc first published his Gothic architectural theories in 1844, and before the Corps des architectes diocésains was established in 1848.

History

The Basilique Notre-Dame de Bonsecours is located in Bonsecours, to the southeast of the center of Rouen, on a site that commands a view over the Seine river It was built between 1840 and 1844, the first Catholic parish church built in Gothic Revival style. The first stone was laid in a ceremony on 4 May 1840.[6] The first mass was celebrated on 15 August 1842 by 20,000 worshippers from the 14 parishes of Rouen. The building was completed in 1844.

Pope Pius IX granted the privilege of "coronation" on 15 July 1870, and the Cardinal Archbishop of Rouen crowned the Virgin on 24 May 1880. Pope Benedict XV made the church a minor basilica on 28 March 1919. In 1977 the basilica was inscribed in the inventory of historical monuments. On 24 August 2004 it was classified as a monument historique.

Address: 18 Rue de la Basilique, 76240 Bonsecours, France
Opened: 1844
Phone: +33 2 35 80 19 57
Architectural style: Gothic Revival architecture
Architect: Jacques-Eugène Barthélémy