Église Notre-Dame de la Couture de Bernay

About

Notre-Dame de la Couture de Bernay Basilica is a Roman Catholic minor basilica located in the municipality of Bernay in Normandy.

History: According to legend, a sheep would have dug up a statuette of the Virgin in a hamlet called La Couture (i.e. "culture" in ancient French). This discovery was the beginning of a pilgrimage and led to the construction of a chapel, erected as a church in the thirteenth. This church was rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries, then enlarged in the 16th century. It became a minor basilica erected by Pius XII in 1950 on the recommendation of Nuncio Angelo Roncalli, future Pope John XXIII. It is the only basilica in the diocese of Evreux, which corresponds to the department of Eure. It is the traditional pilgrimage site of the diocese's charitable brotherhoods, each year on the occasion of Pentecost.

The organ of Notre-Dame de la Couture, dating from 1880, is due to the Rouenian organ maker Hubert Krischer. It has 21 games and was restored in 2007 by Denis Lacorre.