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Things to discover in Fougères and its surroundings
The first stone of the basilica was laid on 17th June 1873. The sanctuary was blessed on the 27th June 1877 and consecrated on 21st February 1905. The crowning of the Virgin took place on 24th July 1934.
The event :
On the evening of 17th January 1871, just as the Prussians were preparing to attack Laval, the Virgin Mary appeared to a group of children. The apparition lasted for three hours. 17 years later, the basilica was completed. Its architecture, with its accentuated vertical lines, is conducive to meditation. 39 bells summon people to prayer. Night and day, candles burn in the Chapel of Light. In the apse, a modern painting adds touches of brighter colour to the blue of the stained-glass windows.
The little village of Pontmain, with its 950 inhabitants, is hidden in the wooded north western part of the Maine region, near the marches of Brittany and Normandy. The two spires of the basilica dominate the village and the surrounding countryside.