Basilica of Our Lady of Cléry

The Basilica of Our Lady of Cléry (French: Basilique Notre-Dame de Cléry) is a mid-fifteenth century Catholic basilica, on the site of earlier church buildings, in Cléry-Saint-André, north-central France.

History

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The holiness of the church ground at Cléry began with the discovery in 1280 of a statue of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, to which miraculous properties were quickly attributed and a small chapel consecrated. In order to further facilitate pilgrimage Philip IV founded a collegiate church on the site about 1300.[1] That church was mostly destroyed in 1428 during the Hundred Years' War by English troops under the Earl of Salisbury; only the original square bell tower remains. On 15 August 1443, during a battle against the English, at Dieppe, Louis XI, then dauphin of France, vowed to rebuild a church at Cléry if he was victorious in the battle.[2] Following the French victory, reconstruction began under the direction of architects Pierre Chauvin and Pierre Lepage, but was not yet complete when Louis XI died in 1483.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "Basilique Notre-Dame de Cléry". Loiret. Archived from the original on 4 May 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Basilique Notre-Dame de Cléry-Saint-André". Structurae. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014.

Bibliography

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  • Georges-Zimmermann, Patrice (2015). Les sépultures prestigieuses de l'église Notre-Dame de Cléry-Saint-André (Loiret): étude pluridisciplinaire du caveau de Louis XI. L'Harmattan. p. 36.

47°49′13″N 1°45′19″E / 47.8202°N 1.7554°E / 47.8202; 1.7554