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Origin and history

The Saint-Martin d'Aniche church, located in the Northern Department, replaces a Merovingian building whose spiritual heritage it perpetuates. His first stone was blessed in 1857 by Archbishop René-François Régnier, on the plans of architect Charles Leroy, inspired by the Gothic of the 14th century. The building, made of bricks, was consecrated in 1859 under the impetus of Canon Jules Lecocq, a visionary priest who marked parish history until 1888. His successor, Abbé Aimé Coulomb, commanded in 1890 a bust of the canon, still visible today.

The bell tower, bombarded in 1918 by the Germans, lost its arrow and historic organ during World War I fighting. The damage led to partial reconstruction: three new bells were named in 1928, and a romantic organ, made in Brussels, was inaugurated in 1931. This instrument, degraded in the 1970s, was restored in the 1990s and then enriched by six games in 2018 by Brayé. The church, renowned for its classical concerts, also houses remarkable heritage elements, such as a tympanum representing St Martin sharing his coat.

Inside, the furniture reflects liturgical developments: the neo-Gothic high altar of 1861, dismantled after Vatican II (1969), gives way to a brick table, while the wooden side altars, like that of the Virgin, remain. The crypt preserves the tomb of Auguste-Louis Lanvin, mayor of Aniche, who died in 1817, whose tombstone was moved to the north wall. Among the works of art, a bust of saint of the eighteenth century, stolen in 2016, remains unobtainable, unlike the statues of Saint Martin and of the Virgin to the Child, still in place. In 2025, the church welcomed relics of Saint Charbel, expanding its spiritual influence.

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