Facts About Lille Cathedral:
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Originally a simple church, it was given the title of minor basilica by Pope Pius X in 1904.
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Lille Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church and basilica located in Lille, France. It is the cathedral church of the Archdiocese of Lille.
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The church was built in honour of the Virgin Mary and takes its name from a 12th-century statue of the saint that has miraculous properties ascribed to it.
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In 2008, following the reorganization of the ecclesiastical provinces of France, the diocese of Lille was elevated to the status of a metropolis and the cathedral became a metropolitan cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of Lille.
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The cathedral was built in stages under the direction of several generations of architects from 1856 to 1975. It was completed in 1999 by the installation of a modern facade, with part of the initial program having been abandoned.