Chapel of Cité de l'Évangile - Ancienne Chapelle des Carmes in Lille - Discover this open and welcoming religious building

Chapel | XVII | Classical | Catholic Church

Disabled access Toilets

Map

Opening hours

02 January - 30 June
Mon
Tue 14.00 - 17.00
Wed 14.00 - 17.00
Thu 14.00 - 17.00
Fri 14.00 - 17.00
Sat 14.00 - 17.00
Sun

01 September - 30 December
Mon
Tue 14.00 - 17.00
Wed 14.00 - 17.00
Thu 14.00 - 17.00
Fri 14.00 - 17.00
Sat 14.00 - 17.00
Sun

Guided tour

Guided tours for groups: contact +33 (0)3 20 74 46 83 or expoabraham@orange.fr

Religious offices

Times of celebrations in the parish of Saint-Pierre du Vieux-Lille are available on Messes.Info

Description

The entrance to the building is discreet, and you have to pass through the gate indicating ‘Cité de l'Évangile’ to discover the classical building with its triangular pediment. The chapel of the former Carmelite convent was built between 1646 and 1669. Its style is fully in keeping with the Counter-Reformation movement, and the choice of a basilica plan is typical of Jesuit churches, inspired by the Baroque. While the exterior is sober, the interior is an architectural marvel in which art serves faith.

After the confiscation of religious property and the expulsion of the Discalced Carmelites, who had been living in rue de Gand since 1620, the chapel became a stable during the French Revolution. It was not until 1856 that the sisters of the Filles de l'Enfant-Jésus congregation restored the building to religious use.

The chapel, listed as a Historic Monument in 1934, became a parish church under the name Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in 1991, after the nearby church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, known as the ‘Grosse Madeleine’, was disused.

In response to the decline in attendance at places of worship in Lille in the early 2000s, the nave of the church was refurbished to house a permanent exhibition retracing, in eleven stages, the history of the Catholic faith from Abraham to Martin Luther King.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Photos

Remarkable elements

Altarpiece

This monumental altarpiece depicts the Baby Jesus reaching out to the cross offered by the Father, based on the painting by Jacques Van Oost the Younger in Saint-André Church (Vieux-Lille).

The choir windows

Located above the sacristy doors, they overlook small rooms that could be used as chapels for the nuns, who could see the choir.

Natalie Doignies (1778-1858)

This Lille figure was a servant from Lille. She founded the Congregation of the Daughters of the Child Jesus to lift the poor out of misery and bear witness to the goodness of Christ. She persuaded the army, which had been occupying the building until then, to give the former chapel of the Discalced Carmelites to her congregation.