Basilique Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux

St. Therese of Lisieux was beatified in 1923 and canonized in 1925, it was decided to build a great basilica dedicated to the pilgrimage to the city where she had lived and where she died. Indeed, the devotion to the new saint soon attracted crowds of more and more important.

This project, launched by the Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, Bishop Lemonnier, received the full support of Pope Pius XI, who had placed his pontificate under the sign of St. Therese.

Preceded by a large square, the monument is located on a hill at the edge of the city that dominates its imposing mass. It was funded entirely by donations and subscriptions from around the world specific.

The work was started September 30, 1929. They were supervised by three architects from father to son, the Shoemaker - Louis-Marie, and his son Louis-Stanislas and his little son Louis. The monument will be completed as July 11, 1954 because of World War II. His style composite (called Romano-Byzantine) is strongly inspired by that of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paris. The basilica was consecrated in 1937, in the presence of Cardinal Pacelli, the papal legate and future Pius XII.

Its size, the building, built of reinforced concrete and granite, is comparable to the largest cathedrals:
• Length: 104 m;
• 50 m width of the transept;
• width of the nave 30 m;
• height of the dome 95 m;
• height of the dome 50 m;
• the cross surmounting all measure 1.70 m;
• height of the arches 37 m;
• 4500 m² area.
This is one of the largest churches built in the twentieth century and can accommodate 4,000 people. The basic structure, which was completed before the war, suffered little damage during the bombing that destroyed two-thirds of Lisieux, she was probably saved by his position on the edge of town. The decoration was undertaken in the 1950s.