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Origin and history

The church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Annunciation du Blanc-Mesnil finds its origins in a chapel built in 1353 near the farm Notre-Dame, then dependent on the parish of Dugny. Protected by the Paris goldsmiths' corporation, this chapel was a biannual pilgrimage site for Parisian artisans between the 14th and 17th centuries. A local legend tells us that Jeanne d'Arc s In 1360 King John II the Good made a pilgrimage there in thanksgiving, a candle in hand, to thank the goldsmiths for having contributed to his ransom after his capture by the English.

The medieval chapel was replaced by a church in the 16th century, which was demolished in 1823. A modest chapel succeeded him in 1871, before the present building was erected in 1912 to respond to the population growth of Blanc-Mesnil. On 24 March 1918, during World War I, a shell fired by the Grosse Bertha gun struck the church in the middle of Palm Mass, causing 7 deaths and 22 injuries. President Raymond Poincaré visited the survivors, and a commemorative plaque was inaugurated a century later. The church was finally enlarged in 1959.

Architecturally, the building adopts a sober neo-Gothic style, with a unique nave, a slender-arrowed bell tower, and an enlarged west side. Its portal, sheltered under an awning, retains a simplicity characteristic of the reconstructions of the early twentieth century, mixing medieval heritage and modern needs.

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