Built between 1864 and 1874, the Basilica of Saint-Epvre is one of the iconic monuments of Nancy, although the church nowadays has some problems and requires a major restoration project.
Saint-Epvre was built thanks to various donations, collected by a charismatic bishop of Nancy, Mgr Trouillet. He worked with the rich and the poor to raise the necessary funds. Thus he obtained 300,000 gold francs from the Emperor of Austria, Francis Josephis , or one fifth of the money needed to build the basilica.
By virtue of this donation, and not without Mgr Trouillet did not insist much, the emperor will visit the site in 1867: a stele still bears witness to this.
To get a very rough idea, this sum of 300,000 gold francs would correspond to the daily wages of just under 300,000 industrial workers at the time. It is also the sum which had been paid to Victor Hugo for the text of “Miserables”.
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