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Origin and history

Notre-Dame-de-All-Aide Church, located in Nantes in the Malakoff district - Saint-Donatien, finds its origins in a small chapel of the beginning of the seventeenth century, itself built on the remains of an older sanctuary dating from the second half of the eleventh century. This first building was founded by Constance de Normandie, Duchess of Brittany, who owned a nearby mansion, the Petit-Blottiereau. The chapel was dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the name "Our Lady of All Aids", in thanks for a wish fulfilled.

In the 19th century, the demographic growth of Doulon, then an independent commune, necessitated the creation of a new place of worship. After heated debates in the municipal council, a second parish was officially established in 1873 by presidential decree. The construction of the present church, entrusted to architect François Bougoüin, pupil of Viollet-le-Duc, began in 1878 and ended in 1881. The project integrates the old chapel, despite differences that led to the temporary resignation of the then mayor.

The tower was added between 1893 and 1895. The church stained glass windows, destroyed during the allied bombings of May 1944, were replaced in 1958 by the glass painter Maurice Rocher. These successive transformations illustrate the adaptation of the monument to the spiritual needs and historical hazards of the region.

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