Former Site of the Chapel of Glacis in Luxemburg, Luxembourg

The early 17th century was a difficult period for Luxembourg City, which was then part of the Spanish Netherlands. The city was simultaneously contending with attacks from the Protestant Reformation, famine, plague and war. In an attempt to restore hope to the inhabitants and perpetuate veneration of statues in the face of Protestantism, Father Jacques Brocquart of the Jesuit College of Luxembourg organised a procession on 8 December 1624 to erect a statue of the Virgin and Child outside the fortifications in the north-west of the city. The statue is known as 'Notre-Dame du Glacis' because it stands on the glacis of the city's fortifications. Between 1625 and 1628, a chapel was built for the statue.

The statue gained great renown in 1639 when the first "Book of Miracles" was published, which collected testimonies of answered prayers. Things then moved quickly: in the same year, to accommodate the influx of pilgrims during the spring pilgrimage, the statue was taken in procession to the Jesuit college church in Luxembourg (now Luxembourg Cathedral) for eight days. This first celebration formed the basis for the annual Octave celebrations ('Octo-' meaning 'eight', referring to the number of days of the celebration), which remain popular to this day. In 1639, the statue was named 'Our Lady, Consoler of the Afflicted'. It was greatly venerated and designated the patron saint of the city of Luxembourg in 1666, and the patron saint and protector of the Duchy of Luxembourg in 1678.

In 1794, French troops invaded the Duchy of Luxembourg and it became a French province. During the fighting, the statue was taken to the Jesuit college church (which had become a parish church in 1778) for safekeeping. It never returned to the Glacis Chapel, as two years later French revolutionaries razed the building to the ground. In 1870, the church that housed the statue became a cathedral. As the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg gained independence, the statue naturally became the country's protector, particularly after the Second World War, when the Octave became a 'national pilgrimage' and the statue became one of the country's symbols.

In 1885, a new neo-Gothic chapel was built on the Glacis square, 150 metres south of the previous location. From that year onwards, the Octave tradition was reversed and the statue left the cathedral for eight days to be venerated on the Glacis. Since 1922, the Octave has been extended to last two weeks, from the fourth to the sixth Sunday of Easter, but it still retains its old name.

In 2016, construction work on the tram line uncovered the chapel's ruins: the two tram tracks now run right through the old building! Following archaeological investigations, the ruins were protected and buried under the tramway foundations. During the finishing work, the outline of the chapel was marked out in paving stones on the ground. A metal plaque at the entrance commemorates this design.

Today, few passers-by notice this outline on the ground. However, the rediscovery of the chapel's remains was a significant event for the country. The bond between the people of Luxembourg and their patron saint's statue remains strong, as evidenced by the large number of participants in the Octave and the Mäertchen (literally 'little market') on Place Guillaume II, which perpetuates the tradition of the pilgrims' market every year.