NOTRE-DAME-DES-GRACES CHURCH

About

Notre-Dame des-Grâces church was built in 1350, just before Revel fortifications were erected. It has undergone many alterations over the centuries, leading to its complete reconstruction at the end of the 19th century.

Revel church was founded in 1350 on a blcok 8 years after the bastide foundation by Philippe VI de Valois in 1342. It was dedicated to Notre-Dame-des-Grâces. Revel consuls undertook to erect fortifications in 1355 right next to the church. The outbreak of the Wars of Religion in Lauragais led to the sacking and ruin of Notre-Dame-des-Grâces in 1567 and 1576. Almost nothing remains of the original building. It was rebuilt after the signing of the Edict of Nantes (peace between catholics and protestants) then destroyed again in the 1620s only to be restored a few decades later. Unfortunately, the new building showed signs of weakness. That led to rebuild the church in the 1870s after endless negotiations between the bishopric, the municipality, the architect and the church council. The new monument was completed in 1889 with the bulbs on the façade bell towers. The domes on the belfries, the vocabulary of flowers, branches and foliages in the sculptures, the rose window and the frieze of apostles and Christ illustrate a style that was fashionable at the time and popular for religious buildings: Byzantine revival style. It is bright, with solid oak parquet flooring dating back to the construction. You’ll also be able to admire the organ, by a Toulouse organ builder Puget, which has been classified as a historical monument. The choir vault was frescoed in the Byzantine revival style in the 1950s. The Stations of the Cross were painted by Georges Artemoff, a Russian artist who lived in Sorèze and Revel during the 2nd World War. In the transept and at the beginning of the ambulatory, you can discover two works of marquetry based on 17th-century painters, as well as a Louis XV-style rococo wooden panel in a chapel. Beautiful stained glass windows depict various saints in the ambulatory, where reliquaries are on display.

Groups

• Maximal number of persons 50

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