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Origin and history

The Notre-Dame-de-Reconciliation Chapel, located 28 rue de Canteleu in Lille (neighborhood Vauban Esquermes), is the oldest sanctuary in the city. Built in the 13th century on the initiative of Countess Jeanne de Constantinople, it replaces an 11th century church dedicated to the Virgin, linked to a reconciliation between Count Baudouin IV of Flanders and his vassals. The site, a place of pilgrimage since the discovery of a statue of the Virgin in 1014 by shepherds, preserves this term of Reconciliation. The present chapel, in Roman-Gothic transition style, consists of a nave and a stone choir, with blue stone columns from Tournai.

In 1636, the chapel passed from the Chapter of the Collegiate Saint Peter to the Jesuits, who revived worship and pilgrimage. The French Revolution marked a turning point: sold as a national property in 1793, it escaped destruction thanks to a private buyer. Back to worship in 1808, it was enlarged in 1831 (extended coasts, added side chapels) before being sold in 1845 during the construction of Saint Martin's church in Esquermes. Repurchased by the Van der Cruisse de Waziers family in 1853, then by the Clarisses (1864), it was finally preserved by the Earl of Hespel after the destruction of the adjacent convent in 1906.

Ranked a historic monument in 1926, the chapel was acquired by the Association Diocésaine de Lille in 1933. Since 1984, the Association des Amis de la Chapelle has been conducting restoration campaigns: nave in 1985, low side in 1997 and 2017, triumphal arch in 2006, roof and facade in 2014. The furniture includes four nineteenth-century paintings and a Millennium Statue installed in 2014, celebrating the 1,000 years of the pilgrimage. Today, it remains an active place of worship and a testimony of Lille religious history.

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