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Origin and history

The Notre-Dame-de-Pitié d-Angers Oratory finds its origins in an octagonal building of the 12th century, whose exact function (burial chapel, lantern of the dead or repose) remains uncertain. In the 13th century, his superior chapel served as a resting place for the procession of the Feast of God, welcoming the Holy Sacrament. Consecrated at Notre-Dame-de-Pitié in the 15th century, this medieval oratory was destroyed during the Revolution, along with the suppression of the Saint-Laurent parish cemetery.

In the 19th century, ephemeral wooden buildings replaced it annually on the square, until the architect René-Eugène Dussouchay was commissioned in 1875 to build a definitive monument. Although not completed, it was consecrated in 1878 by Bishop Charles-Emile Freppel. The vaults were added around 1888 under the direction of Felix Ruault, and the arrow, along with a molten Christ commemorating the mission of the Redemptorist fathers, were laid in 1891. A first restoration in 1908 partially completed the sculptures, but some elements (buttress, bows) remained unfinished.

The last procession took place in 1965, and the monument, threatened with demolition, was listed at the Historic Monuments in 1992. A complete restoration was carried out in 1996. Today, the oratory combines a variety of materials (granite, shale, tuffeau, Chauvigny limestone) and a complex plan, mixing a straight arched span with a polygonal apse, surmounted by a zinc arrow. Its history reflects the liturgical, revolutionary and architectural evolutions of Angers.

The sculpture workshop Moisseron and Ruault participated in its decoration, while the access stairs, originally planned in a more ambitious way, disappeared over time. The repose, the property of an association, bears witness to Marian piety and the Angevin processional traditions, while illustrating the challenges of preserving the 19th century heritage.

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