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Origin and history

The Church of St. James of Douai is a Catholic building whose history is divided into two distinct periods. The first church, Gothic architecture, was built on the present Carnot Square after the parish was founded in 1225. It served as a burial place until the Revolution, with more than 19,000 burials recorded between 1647 and 1790. Disused in 1797, it was sold and demolished, and its foundations were partially removed between 1845 and 1847. Archaeological excavations in 2007 revealed 1,892 burials, including that of Matthew Kellison and the embalmed heart of Anne de Lens, dated 1580.

The second church of Saint-Jacques, initially a monastery chapel of the Recollets built in the early eighteenth century (1706-1709), was enlarged between 1852 and 1854 by architect Alexandre Grigny. Ranked a historic monument in 1995, it was closed in 2011 due to the risk of collapse of its dome. It houses an organ offered in 1880, built by Pierre Schyven and restored by Cavaillé-Coll around 1900. A rare relic of St.James the Major, a forgotten silky arcade, was rediscovered in 2012 during the preparations for the commemorations of the roads of Compostela.

The name of the church could come from Jacques Painmoullé, a local bourgeois. The first church was a central place for the parish, while the second, although closed, preserves a major religious and historical heritage. The relic of Saint James, formerly exhibited, will be transferred to the collegiate Saint Peter of Douai for the 500th anniversary of his turn. The 2007 excavations and the rediscovery of the relic in 2012 reinforced the archaeological and spiritual importance of the site.

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