SAINT MAURICE BASILICA

Description

The basilica is a thousand-year-old jewel of architecture which witnesses the key moments of local life and watches over the city with its belfry-tower like a sentinel made of pink sandstone from the Vosges. Its incongruous silhouette, a mix of different eras, has won us over, just like it has won over the hearts of the residents of Epinal...

The Basilica of Saint-Maurice is worth a visit, whatever your religion!

Built in the 11th century, it was originally a parish church but also an abbey church, under the patronage of Saint Goëry, whose relics cured "the evil of the burning ones".

In the 13th century, pilgrimages made it possible to finance works, and the church was able to host a chapter of canonesses. As transitional building between Romanesque and Gothic, its architecture kept traces of its evolution through a combination of Rhine, Burgundian and Champagne styles. As we enter the Church through the bourgeois portal to the west, we are humbled by the Nave, which is 14 metres high!

The tribunes of the Transept, each served by a spiral staircase, justify the two turrets visible on the outside and so typical! In the semi-darkness, after we admired the Burial of Jesus, the Rosary Chapel and the reliquaries, we leave this emblematic place to return to the daily life that surrounds us...