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Once upon a time, there was a ... chapel.

Story and photos by Matthew Bin Han Ong, Comm '12

Resting on a raised stone platform shrouded in cherry blossom trees, the quaint St. Joan of Arc Chapel looks like an untouched medieval oasis — as if it has been frozen in time.

Located at the heart of Marquette’s picturesque campus, the chapel is believed to be one of the few medieval structures in the Americas still used for its original purpose. At first glance, few would guess that this beauty fell into ruin after the French Revolution or that it was built before the first pilgrims set foot on the Mayflower.

The chapel was shipped to the United States in 1926, where it underwent reconstruction in Long Island, N.Y. After the French Renaissance château the chapel was attached to burned down, a long-time Jewish donor gave it to Marquette in 1964, along with an early Gothic antique font that predates the chapel. Here are some interesting numbers hidden behind the chapel’s stony façade:

500-600: Years of history.

Several: Generations built the chapel in Chassé, a French village south of Lyon in the Rhone River Valley. It was originally named Chapelle de St. Martin de Sayssuel.

1: Famous stone. According to chapel tour guides, legend has it that Joan of Arc prayed before a statue of Mother Mary standing on this stone and kissed the stone at the end of her prayer. Ever since, it allegedly has been colder than the stones surrounding it.

3: Antique hand-embroidered silk, velvet and brocade vestments from the 17th and 18th centuries, along with many other artifacts and items from antiquity.

50: People can fit in the chapel, and students usually push the limits during the popular 10 p.m. Tuesday Mass.

16: Hours of smoldering flames endured in New York in 1962 when a fire gutted much of the adjacent château but almost miraculously spared the chapel.

1: Tomb belonging to Chevalier de Sautereau, a former knight and castle commander (Châtelain) of Chasse. Although the Chevalier’s bones are no longer interred within, the tomb is still a part of the sanctuary floor.

18,000: Antique terra cotta roof tiles.

40,000:  Pounds of chapel stones loaded on each truck during the nine months it took to transport the chapel to Marquette.

2: Years of reconstruction at Marquette. The chapel was dedicated to the French heroine and martyr on May 26, 1966.

4,320: Miles away from the Rhone River Valley, where the chapel stood for more than 500 years.