2 AVIOTH, a little cathedral in the fields

Avioth, situated in the North East of France, almost on the border of Belgium, is renowned for its miraculous madonna.

According to tradition, shepherds discovered a statue of a madonna in a thorn bush. A shrine was built during the second part of the eleventh century on the site of the discovery, perhaps under the influence of the Cistercians of the Abbey of Orval nearby.

Legends say the church was built by the devil.

Brownish-black at first, the statue was polychromized in the 18th century.

 

      

For more info:  http://www.avioth.fr/accueil.php