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Origin and history

The Collège Notre-Dame de Cassel, located in the Nord department, has been attested since the 10th century. Fired and desecrated on several occasions, it was rebuilt on its original foundations. During the Revolution, it served as a stable, a prison, and then a Temple of Reason, before being restored under the impulse of the Archbishop of Cambrai. Its current Gothic architecture includes three naves of the same height and a square tower above the choir.

The college houses a miraculous statue of Notre-Dame de la Crypte, venerated since the 16th century. Marshal Foch prayed there daily during the First World War, assigning to his intercession the protection of Cassel from bombing. A banner offered by the inhabitants, visible at the departmental museum of Flanders, commemorates this event. The annual novena (2-10 July) perpetuates this cult, while a former cult in Saint Roch, linked to the cessation of a plague epidemic, was celebrated until the 20th century.

The church preserves remarkable furniture: an 18th-century altarpiece, 19th-century frescoes by Alexis Bafcop (creator of giants Reuze Papa and Mom), and an organ transformed in 1821, decorated with statues of King David and Saint Cecile. The Recollets brothers, present in Cassel until the Revolution, marked the local religious history, giving his name to the present parish, Saint-François-des-Monts-de-Flandre, founded in 1993.

Prior to the Revolution, Cassel had three parishes (Notre-Dame, Saint-Nicolas, Quaestraete) and three other churches (Saint Peter's College, Jesuits, Augustine canonesses). After 1789 Notre-Dame became the only parish, before expanding to six communes in 1993. The current priest (2021) is Father Christophe Vasse.

Ranked a historical monument in 1981, the collegiate church illustrates the religious and architectural history of French Flanders, mixing destruction, reconstruction and popular devotions. Its furniture and frescoes, partially restored in 2009, bear witness to its rich artistic and spiritual past.

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