Carmel of Lisieux : chapel and museum

The monastery was founded in 1835, but the chapel was built between 1852 and 1877. Between 1888 and 1897, the convent welcomed Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, as well as her three sisters. Entering the convent at the age of 15, she died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. Quickly a popular devotion to the saint develops, many pilgrims go to the basilica of Lisieux and to the Carmelite convent, in the footsteps of the places where Thérèse lived.

Located within the convent, the chapel faces south-east. Its western facade, through which the main entrance is made, is in the 17th century Roman style, with its semicircular portal framed by twin columns with Ionic capitals - that is, with windings in the shape of a spirales-, its balustrade or its triangular tympanum. Inside, the large columns with their sculpted capitals also recall this style.

The chapel has undergone few changes since its elevation except in 1923, when the side nave and the Châsse chapel were added, intended to house the relics of Saint Thérèse. In 2008, the chapel was restored and fitted out in such a way as to best accommodate the influx of visitors who came to contemplate the saint's relics.

The interior of the building is uncluttered with its white walls decorated with wooden panels. The choir is decorated with wooden pilasters, surmounted by masonry semicircular arches. These support the dome decorated with radiating ribs and a lattice of motifs of Greek crosses and roses.

In 1944, Carmel was one of the rare monuments in Lisieux spared by bombardments and fighting. For eighty days, the monastic community took refuge in the crypt of the Basilica of Sainte-Thérèse, before regaining possession of Carmel on August 27, 1944.

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