The Basilica of St. Martin is a Roman Catholic basilica dedicated to Saint

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours ( la, Sanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the ...

, over whose tomb it was built. It is located in Tours, France. The first basilica was established here in the 5th century (consecrated in 471) on the site of an earlier chapel. Basilique Saint Martin de Tours official website
It was at first served by a community of monks under an abbot, the Abbot of St Martin, who between 796 and 804 was Alcuin, the adviser of Charlemagne. Shortly before this the monastic establishment was changed to a collegiate church manned by a community of canons, but the office and title of abbot persisted. The mediaeval basilica was completely demolished during the French Revolution. The present church was built between 1886 and 1924 by French architect Victor Laloux in a neo-Byzantine style, on part of the site of the original basilica which was repurchased by the Church. It was dedicated on July 4, 1925.

Mediaeval basilica

The Abbey of Marmoutier was a monastery just outside today's city of Tours in Indre-et-Loire, France established by Martin around 372. Martin founded the monastery to escape attention and live life as a monastic. The Abbey at Tours was one of the most prominent and influential establishments in medieval France. Charlemagne awarded the position of Abbot to his friend and adviser Alcuin. At this time the abbot could travel between Tours and the court at Trier in Germany and always stay overnight at one of his own properties. It was at Tours that Alcuin's scriptorium (a room in monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

s) developed Caroline minuscule, the clear round hand that made manuscripts far more legible. In later times the abbey was destroyed by fire on several occasions and ransacked by

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

Vikings in 853 and in 903. It burned again in 994, and was rebuilt by Hervé de Buzançais, treasurer of Saint Martin, an effort that took 20 years to complete. Expanded to accommodate the crowds of pilgrims and to attract them, the shrine of St. Martin of Tours became a major stopping-point on pilgrimages. In 1453 the remains of Saint Martin were transferred to a magnificent new reliquary donated by

Charles VII of France Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious (french: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of F ...

and

Agnes Sorel Agnes or Agness may refer to: People *Agnes (name), the given name, and a list of people named Agnes or Agness * Wilfrid Marcel Agnès (1920–2008), Canadian diplomat Places *Agnes, Georgia, United States, a ghost town * Agnes, Missouri, United ...

. During the French Wars of Religion, the basilica was sacked by the Protestant Huguenots in 1562. It was disestablished during the French Revolution. It was deconsecrated, used as a stable, then utterly demolished. Its dressed stones were sold in 1802 after two streets were built across the site, to ensure the abbey would not be reconstructed.

Current basilica

In 1860 excavations by Leo Dupont (1797–1876) established the dimensions of the former abbey and recovered some fragments of architecture. The tomb of St. Martin was rediscovered on December 14, 1860, which aided in the nineteenth-century revival of the popular devotion to St. Martin. After the radical Paris Commune of 1871, there was a resurgence of conservative Catholic piety, and the church decided to build a basilica to St. Martin. They selected Victor Laloux as architect. He eschewed

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

for a mix of Romanesque and Byzantine, sometimes defined as neo-Byzantine. The new Basilique Saint-Martin was erected on a portion of its former site, which was purchased from the owners. Started in 1886, the church was consecrated 4 July 1925.

References

External links

* Official webpage for the Basilic

* Sacred destination

Churches in Indre-et-Loire Buildings and structures in Tours, France Basilica churches in France Church buildings with domes {{France-RC-church-stub