Notre Dame de Lorette
Encyclopedia
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
, and French national cemetery northwest of Arras
Arras
Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
at the village of Ablain-Saint-Nazaire
Ablain-Saint-Nazaire
Ablain-Saint-Nazaire is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.-Geography:A farming village located 8 miles north of Arras, on the D57 road. It was rebuilt after being destroyed during World War I...
. The high point of the hump-backed ridge stands 165 metres high and - with Vimy Ridge - utterly dominates the otherwise flat Douai plain and the town of Arras.
The ground was strategically important during the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and was bitterly contested in a series of long and bloody engagements between the opposing French and German armies. It was the focal point of three battles:
- First Battle of ArtoisFirst Battle of ArtoisThe First Battle of Artois was a military encounter during World War I. The battle was the first offensive move on the Western Front by either side after the First Battle of Ypres ended in November 1914...
(27 September–10 October 1914) - an encounter battle during the Race to the SeaRace to the SeaThe Race to the Sea is a name given to the period early in the First World War when the two sides were still engaged in mobile warfare on the Western Front. With the German advance stalled at the First Battle of the Marne, the opponents continually attempted to outflank each other through...
. - Second Battle of ArtoisSecond Battle of ArtoisThe Second Battle of Artois, of which the British contribution was the Battle of Aubers Ridge, was a battle on the Western Front of the First World War, it was fought at the same time as the Second Battle of Ypres. Even though the French under General Philippe Pétain gained some initial victories,...
(9 May–15 May 1915) - French attack towards Vimy Ridge. - Third Battle of ArtoisThird Battle of ArtoisThe Third Battle of Artois was on the Western Front of World War I, is also known as the Loos-Artois Offensive, including the major British offensive, known as the Battle of Loos....
(25 September–15 October 1915) - also known as the Artois-Loos Offensive.
The Battles of Artois were as costly in French lives as the better-known Battle of Verdun
Battle of Verdun
The Battle of Verdun was one of the major battles during the First World War on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies, from 21 February – 18 December 1916, on hilly terrain north of the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France...
. As with numerous other sites across France, Notre Dame de Lorette became a national necropolis, sacred ground containing the graves of French and Colonial
French colonial empires
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
fallen, as well as an ossuary, containing the bones of those whose names were not marked.
In total, the cemetery and ossuary hold the remains of more than 40,000 soldiers, as well as the ashes of many concentration camp victims.
The basilica and memorial buildings were designed by the architect Louis-Marie Cordonnier and his son Jacques Cordonnier, and built between 1921 and 1927.
History
A small building was raised in 1727 by the painter Nicolas Florent Guilbert, who had made a successful pilgrimage to LoretoLoreto (AN)
Loreto is a hilltown and comune of the Italian province of Ancona, in the Marche. It is mostly famous as the seat of the Basilica della Santa Casa, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site.-Location:...
(Italy), to shelter a statue of the Virgin Mary. It was destroyed in 1794, rebuilt in 1816 and transformed in 1880.
