Domaine Marial de Sugny

This estate, created in 1912, was gradually expanded by Father Camille Muller.

Construction of the cave started from 1910-1911 with the villagers . He managed to unite both believers and non-believers. Everything starts from the hill. They dug and poured concrete. Everything is artificial. The cave is just the well-known and emblematic sight of the Domaine Marial de Sugny. Behind it, a group of monuments and works are revealed, spread over 1.2 hectares of nature. The estate grew plot by plot. Sometimes the abbot bought some. It even says somewhere that he traded bags of flour for a few square meters of land. It was completed in 1935.

In particular, you can discover a Christ the King and a statue of Bernadette Soubirou. He developed the Sacré-Coeur Monument . He made the Stations of the Cross with 14 stations, spread over almost 500 meters long. To get to the first station, you can take the Scala Sancta, the Holy Stairs , which you should theoretically climb on your knees. He will also try to recreate a great monument, the sanctuary dedicated to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

At his death, Abbot Müller, nicknamed the Construction Priest, who was buried on the domain, left the estate to the Dean of Bouillon , much to the consternation of the villagers, who had helped in its construction and would therefore have withdrawn from its maintenance of it. Over the decades, and despite the annual French-Belgian pilgrimages on August 16, vegetation has gradually reclaimed the area . Until the Friends of Domaine Marial decided to reverse the trend and restore the setting of the monuments.

The pilgrimage of August 16, 2014 honored the centenary…

Willem Vandenameele