Are you familiar with the legend of the shepherd and his sheep?
In the 11th century, a shepherd was grazing his sheep not far away from Albert. Suddenly one of them went away from the flock and was scratching a tuft of grass.
Surprised the shepherd approached and tapped the ground with his crook to scold the sheep. At the same time he heard a mysterious voice saying : "Stop it shepherd, you are hurting me" Astonished he started to dig and he discovered a statue of Notre-Dame with the mark of the knock on the forehead. He was so moved by this miraculous discovery that he decided to bring the statue back with him thinking that everybody would cheer him on.
The neighboring villages of Aveluy and La Boisselle were sceptical that the statue had been found on Albert's land and not theirs. To settle this argument a cart contest was organized. The town of Albert with its old horse won the race, the two others horses stubbornly refusing to move forward.
At the back of the Basilica, you can admire a very old replica of the Virgin Mary statue, standing, crowned, holding the Child in her arms and having a sheep at her feet.
When you are facing the statue, two stained-glass windows from 1929 by Jacques Grüber depict, on the left, the shepherd finding the sheep, and on the right, the cart contest. Since then, the Basilica has been named Notre-Dame de Brebières, to pay tribute to the sheep that helped to discover the statue. (Brebières comes from the name brebis in French which means sheep).
