Basilique Notre-Dame de Chèvremont, Minor basilica in Vaux-sous-Chèvremont, Chaudfontaine, Belgium.
The Basilique Notre-Dame de Chèvremont is a Gothic Revival church of grey-brown stone on the Chèvremont hill above the Vesdre valley. It has two main volumes with steep slate roofs, a large rose window, pointed traceried windows, a projecting side chapel and a slender octagonal turret with a pointed spire. The planned bell tower was never built.
The Bishop of Liège, Théodore de Montpellier, called for a convent on the hill after the 1874 pilgrimage of 20,000 people; the Carmelites settled in 1878 and construction of the church began in 1877. Interrupted by lack of funds in 1882, work resumed in 1897 and the church was consecrated on 8 September 1899. Designed by Edmond Jamar, it was damaged by German artillery in 1914 and again in 1940 and 1944, and was elevated to minor basilica in 1928.
Pilgrims have venerated a wooden statue of Notre-Dame du Château Neuf, 75 cm tall and dating from the 17th century, since the 7th century; it now stands above the main altar of the small Jesuit chapel. The chapel's altar inscription reads "16 S. MARIA ORA PRO ANGLIA 88", recalling the English Jesuits exiled by Henry VIII who settled in Liège in 1613 and built the chapel in 1688. The dish fricassèye di Tchivrimont, a regional fricassee, dates from the 19th-century pilgrim boom.
The basilica stands on the Chèvremont hill above a bend of the Vesdre, in the Chaudfontaine municipality; the climb from the valley is on foot. The site is reached via Vaux-sous-Chèvremont, and the hilltop gives a view over the Vesdre valley. The Jesuit chapel and the seven oratories on the path to it are outdoors and can be seen separately from the basilica.
A philatelic issue with surcharged stamps was released in 1948, not the 1950s, to raise money for the reconstruction begun in 1946 with the help of German prisoners of war. Funds remained short, and devotion shifted to Banneux, about fifteen kilometres away, where apparitions were reported in 1933.
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