Notre-Dame Cathedral, Luxembourg
Encyclopedia
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
of Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
. It was originally a Jesuit church, and its cornerstone was laid in 1613.
The church is a noteworthy example of late gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
; however, it also has many Renaissance
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
elements and adornments. At the end of the 18th century, the church received the miraculous image of the Maria Consolatrix Afflictorum, the patron saint of both the city and the nation.
Around 50 years later, the church was consecrated as the Church of Our Lady and in 1870, it was elevated by Pope Pius IX to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.
At the cemetery of the cathedral is the National Monument to the Resistance and to the Deportation. The centerpiece of the monument is the famous bronze monument by the 20th century Luxembourgish sculptor Lucien Wercollier
Lucien Wercollier
Lucien Wercollier was a sculptor from Luxembourg.While he worked primarily in bronze and marble, some of his work is sculpted in wood, alabaster, stone and onyx. His public monuments in bronze and marble are of particular importance...
called The Political Prisoner
Le prisonnier politique
Le prisonnier politique is the name of a bronze sculpture created in 1949 by Luxembourgish sculptor Lucien Wercollier...
.
The cathedral was expanded and enlarged from 1935 to 1938.