UNESCO World Heritage

In the past, Notre-Dame-en-Vaux Collegiate Church was a meeting point for northern and eastern Europeans setting out on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Santiago, or Saint James, is considered to have been part of the Christian Reconquista of Spain. He is said to have appeared miraculously in 844 at the Battle of Clavijo, which led to the victory over the Saracens. This miracle is depicted in a stained-glass window in Notre-Dame-en-Vaux Church, which displays the moment when Santiago takes command of the troops that go on to defeat the opposing army fleeing to the right (the stained-glass window of the battle of Santiago in the north aisle).

Notre-Dame-en-Vaux Collegiate Church boasts stunning 16th-century stained-glass windows and a carillon with 56 bells, one of the largest in Europe.

L’Epine has been a place of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages and around 1200, there was already a modest little chapel.

According to a legend dating from the 17th century, in 1400, shepherds discovered a miraculous statue of the Virgin and Child in a burning thorn bush. The present church was built to house the statue.

Notre-Dame de l’Epine (The Church of Our Lady of the Thorns) therefore has its origins in the devotion to this statue of the Virgin and Child, whose popularity grew to such an extent that it became one of the great pilgrimages in the north of the kingdom.

This statue is preserved and a replica is still on display in the basilica.