The history of Petit Lourdes begins in 1870 when the Congregation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools founded a novitiate on a farm on the banks of the Caen canal at the sea.
In 1879, Monsieur Dubosq, a wine merchant from Rouen, made a donation to the congregation and expressed the wish to build a «Petit Lourdes» on the site in recognition of the miraculous healing of his wife in Lourdes. The work will run from 1879 to 1885. The Petit Lourdes of Hérouville-Saint-Clair is the faithful reproduction 2/3 of the sanctuary of the Marian city with a chapel consecrated in 1882, laces inaugurated in 1885 and a cave and its source.
Today the site is preserved and enhanced thanks to the association of safeguarding the heritage of Petit Lourdes of Hérouville-Saint-Clair. The place offers today the same face as in 1879 and allows visitors a journey back 140 years.