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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Saint-Nicolas de Nantes Basilica is a neo-Gothic Roman Catholic church built in the heart of the city between 1844 and 1869. It replaces a medieval church of the 15th century, which became too small for a parish in full population expansion. The project, entrusted to Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus (student of Viollet-le-Duc), is part of the French Gothic revival, with an atypical north-south orientation due to the narrowness of the terrain. The building is built of local granite and Touraine tuffle, and its arrow culminates after fifteen years of work dedicated to the bell tower.

The old church, mentioned in 1444, had undergone major enlargements in the 15th century, partly building on the walls of Pierre I of Brittany. In the 18th century, reconstruction projects were envisaged, but it was under the impetus of the parish priest Felix Fournier (later Bishop of Nantes) that the present basilica was created. It was erected as a minor basilica by Pope Leo XIII in 1882, and was classified as a historical monument in 1986, after decades marked by the damage of the Second World War (bombing of 1943) and a major restoration between 1953 and 1974.

Interior furniture, neo-Gothic style, has been protected since 1985. Among the remarkable elements are a 20-metre stained glass window (heritage of the medieval church), an altar decorated with 26 statues, and an organ rebuilt after the destruction of 1943. The bell tower houses five bells, including a 7.2-ton (Mi 2) bell, one of the most serious in France. The basilica symbolizes both the nantais religious heritage and the challenges of heritage preservation, with recent restoration campaigns (2004) to counter the effects of pollution.

The history of the basilica is also that of his parish, whose parish priests have marked his evolution, such as Félix Fournier (1836–70), an artisan of his reconstruction, or the architects Lassus and Piel, pioneers of the neo-Gothic in France. The 1943 bombings left visible scars, especially in the walk-through and vaults, recalling the role of the monument as a witness to the conflicts of the twentieth century. Today, the basilica remains an active place of worship and a major architectural landmark of the Nantes heritage.

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