Basilique Saint-Donatien-et-Saint-Rogatien

About

Saint-Donatien-et-Saint-Rogatien Basilica is a French Roman-style basilica located in the Malakoff - Saint-Donatien district of Nantes. Its main façade overlooks the Place des Enfants-Nantais. It is one of the two basilicas of the city, with the Basilica Saint-Nicolas. Dating from the 19th century, it is dedicated to Saint Donatien of Nantes and his brother Saint Rogatien, the first nantais Christians, martyred in the city at the end of the third century. In addition to the basilica, the site also includes a cemetery and the Saint-Étienne Chapel, protected as historical monuments.

The building rises to the location of an old Gallo-Roman villa. Excavations carried out in 1873 revealed an ancient pagan cemetery, a pit in the centre of the apse containing 27 nails attributed to the coffins of the two martyrs and revealed that four churches were successively built. The promulgation of the edict of Constantine, nine years after their death, saw the development of a cult around the bodies of the two brothers who died as martyrs, first dislocated on the easet, whipped and then led out of the city not far from the present basilica, at the level of no 63 street...