Lisieux Basilica

Therese Martin entered the Carmel at Lisieux at fifteen and died of tuberculosis in 1897 aged twenty-four, leaving an autobiography written under obedience that was published after her death and spread extraordinarily fast; she was canonised in 1925, named a patron of France and later declared a Doctor of the Church, one of only four women so named. The basilica built for the pilgrimage was begun in 1929 and consecrated in 1954, in a Romano-Byzantine style with a dome, covering some four and a half thousand square metres, and it is among the largest churches built in France in the twentieth century. Lisieux is the second pilgrimage site in France after Lourdes.

What you actually see

• The domed basilica - a Romano-Byzantine church of the 1930s and 1950s.
• The mosaics - interior surfaces covered in mosaic work.
• The Carmel - the convent where Therese lived and died, with her relics.
• Les Buissonnets - the family house where she grew up.

When to go

April to October; the pilgrimage season peaks around her feast in October and in summer. The basilica is open year-round and free. Lisieux was heavily bombed in 1944 and rebuilt.

Honest expectations

The basilica is twentieth-century, not medieval, which surprises some. The town around was destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt plainly. Sites connected with Therese are spread across the town.

Nearby

The Pays d'Auge cider route lies west; Caen is further west.