Visite libre de la chapelle Notre-Dame de Pitié

A major place of pilgrimage in the Perche region, "la Piéta" was venerated on September 8 each year. It stands at the top of 33 steps of an imposing staircase built in the late 19th century. Built into the hillside on a spur overlooking the town, it marks the pinnacle of Percheron Renaissance architecture. Built in the 16th century for the Confrérie de Charité (Brotherhood of Charity) founded after the Hundred Years' War, the chapel is dedicated to the Virgin of Pity. Her cult was that of people overwhelmed by disease and war, with nothing left to hope for from Heaven... If you enter the chapel through the side door, you'll notice the ribbed vault with carved keys and fine late 19th-century stained glass windows; an older stained glass window (1556), on the left in the choir, was restored in 1634. At the high altar, the polychrome statue of Notre-Dame, broken during the French Revolution, was reconstituted with pieces put in a safe place by parishioners. The oak doorways were finely carved in 1895 by Abbé Vingtier, a native of Longny. The elaborate portico, bell tower corners and buttresses of the nave and chapels feature canopied niches that once housed 24 statues destroyed during the French Revolution.

Types

• Heritage
• Open doors

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