The Basilica of Saint Martin is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

dedicated to Saint

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours (; 316/3368 November 397) was the third bishop of Tours. He is the patron saint of many communities and organizations across Europe, including France's Third French Republic, Third Republic. A native of Pannonia (present-day Hung ...

, over whose tomb it was built. It is located in

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

, 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 Saint Martin, who between 796 and 804 was

Alcuin Alcuin of York (; ; 735 – 19 May 804), also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin, was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Ecgbert of York, Archbishop Ecgbert at Yor ...

, the adviser of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

. Shortly before this the monastic establishment was changed to a

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...

manned by a community of canons, but the office and title of abbot persisted. The medieval 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 4 July 1925.

Mediaeval basilica

The Abbey which developed around the shrine of Saint Martin at Tours became one of the most prominent and influential establishments in medieval France.

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 Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...

in Germany and always stay overnight at one of his own properties. It was at Tours that Alcuin's

scriptorium A scriptorium () was a writing room in medieval European monasteries for the copying and illuminating of manuscripts by scribes. The term has perhaps been over-used—only some monasteries had special rooms set aside for scribes. Often they ...

(a room in

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

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 Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

s) developed

Carolingian minuscule Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one ...

, 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

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

s 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

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

s. 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 () or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. His reign saw the end of the Hundred Years' War and a ''de facto'' end of the English claims to ...

and

Agnès Sorel Agnès Sorel (; 1422 – 9 February 1450), known by the sobriquet ''Dame de beauté'' (Lady of Beauty), was a favourite and chief mistress of King Charles VII of France, by whom she bore four daughters. She is considered the first officially ...

. During the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

, the basilica was sacked by the Protestant

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

s 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 Leo Dupont (24 January 1797 – 18 March 1876), also known as "the holy man of Tours" or "the apostle of the Holy Face", was a Roman Catholic layman who helped spread various devotions such as that of the Holy Face of Jesus and the nightly E ...

(1797–1876) established the dimensions of the former abbey and recovered some fragments of architecture. The tomb of Saint Martin was rediscovered on 14 December 1860, which aided in the 19th-century revival of the popular devotion to St. Martin. After the radical

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

of 1871, there was a resurgence of conservative Catholic piety, and the church decided to build a basilica to Saint Martin. They selected Victor Laloux as architect. He eschewed Gothic 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 on 4 July 1925.

Notes and references

External links

* Official webpage for the Basilic

* Sacred destination

{{Authority control Churches in Indre-et-Loire Buildings and structures in Tours, France Basilica churches in France Church buildings with domes

Mediaeval basilica

Current basilica

Notes and references

See also

External links