Notre-Dame Cathedral

Notre-Dame de Saint-Omer is a former cathedral and now minor basilica, one of the finest Gothic churches in northern France. Construction began in the 13th century and continued through the 15th, with the result that the building carries different Gothic styles across its nave, choir and side chapels. The interior is particularly impressive: a long, tall nave with 14th-century ribbed vaulting, elaborate stone rood screens, and a series of Flemish Renaissance and Gothic altarpieces.

The cathedral was deconsecrated during the Revolution and served briefly as a grain store, then reconverted. Among its medieval treasures is the painted wooden Mise au Tombeau, a 15th-century Entombment of Christ with remarkably expressive figures. The tomb of Saint Erkembode in the north transept draws a steady trickle of pilgrims even today.

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The tomb of Saint Erkembode, an 8th-century bishop venerated as a healer of paralysis, is inside the cathedral and still covered with donated shoes — left by pilgrims praying for mobility for disabled children, a tradition that has continued for over a thousand years.