The history of Petit Lourdes began 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 by the sea.
In 1879 Mr.Dubosq, a wine merchant from Rouen, made a donation to the congregation and made a vow to have a "Petit Lourdes" built on the site in recognition of the miraculous healing of his wife in Lourdes. The work was carried out from 1879 to 1885. The Petit Lourdes d'Hérouville-Saint-Clair is the faithful reproduction in 2/3 of the shrine of the Marian city with a chapel consecrated in 1882, laces inaugurated in 1885 as well as a grotto and its source.
Today the site is preserved and enhanced thanks to the association for safeguarding the heritage of the Petit Lourdes of Hérouville-Saint-Clair. The place now offers the same face as in 1879 and allows visitors a time trip of 140 years back.