Chapelle Notre Dame du Rempart - Namur

The Notre-Dame-du-Rempart chapel is a Marian shrine built in 1868.

It houses the statue of Mary that used to stand on the city wall . Notre-Dame-du-Rempart was declared 'patron saint of the city of Namur' by Pope Pius XII on April 13, 1951.

On December 8, 1661, Pope Alexander VII approved the cult of the Immaculate Conception by establishing its liturgical feast day , ending a centuries-old debate. The mayor and aldermen of Namur immediately decided to place a statue of Notre-Dame on one of the outer city walls (near the current train station). The inauguration took place on May 2, 1665: the inhabitants and authorities asked the Virgin Mary to protect the city from the enemy.

In 1757 a chapel replaced the simple stone niche on a pillar fixed to the city wall. Less than a century later, in 1806, the chapel was rebuilt in neoclassical style by Nicolas Minsart (Dom Jérôme), a former monk from Boneffe and pastor of the Saint-Jean l'évangéliste church. It stood just outside the city walls, near the Ursulines' impasse. However, it disappeared when the city walls were demolished to make way for roads.

A new chapel in the same style was built in 1868 (shortly after the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was codified in 1854) to house the Rempart statue. This time the chapel is located next to the Louise-Marie municipal park, where the foundations of the old fortress walls can still be seen and where the former moat was transformed into a pond. The chronogram on the front reads : "To the Virgin Mary, in recognition of her faithful protection, the inhabitants dedicated this chapel".

Pope Pius _ The Marian Shrine, which is not a parish church, still attracts many visitors from Namur and elsewhere, especially during Marian ceremonies and celebrations.

Willem Vandenameele