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

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. 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. 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.

Bibliography

• 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.