A deconsecrated 19th-century parish church in Renescure has been put up for sale on French classifieds platform Leboncoin for 107,500 euros. The red-brick building, located in the Nord department of northern France, offers 370 square metres of floor space at a rate of 291 euros per square metre, French daily newspaper Le Parisien reported.
A local notary office handling the transaction has advertised the property under the heading of a 370-square-metre building. Factoring in mandatory notary fees, the total cost for prospective buyers comes to 115,500 euros.
According to the listing, the unusual and deconsecrated property could be converted into a cultural venue, commercial premises, or an atypical private residence, subject to obtaining the appropriate planning permissions from local authorities.
Renescure is a small rural municipality situated in northern France, close to the border of the Pas-de-Calais department. Leboncoin is France's most popular online marketplace for consumer goods and standard residential housing, making the sale of a public religious building through the classifieds portal an unusual occurrence.
Architecture and interior condition
Erected in 1877, the church was designed in the neo-Gothic architectural style that became popular across northern Europe in the late 19th century. The exterior features a 50-metre tower alongside a large rose window set above two arched wooden entry doors, with a square bell tower and clock rising over the roofline.
Inside, the nave stands largely deserted. The online advertisement noted that wooden debris, likely the remaining fragments of old church pews, lies scattered across the floor.
At 291 euros per square metre, the asking price sits well below standard French real estate values, reflecting the substantial restoration work required to rehabilitate disused historical structures. In France, property transactions are handled by notaries, who are state-appointed legal officials authorized to prepare deeds and facilitate private real estate sales.
Previous church sales in northern France
The sale in Renescure is part of a broader sequence of ecclesiastical listings on Leboncoin in the region. In February 2025, Saint-Edouard church in the nearby city of Lens was placed on the market by a commercial real estate agency for 362,500 euros.
A second church in Lens was subsequently listed on the platform as a historic property complex with an asking price of 498,000 euros.
Both listings highlighted how local authorities in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais areas have turned to commercial property channels when faced with redundant religious buildings that no longer host regular congregations.
French secularism and municipal ownership
Under the 1905 French law on the separation of church and state, the vast majority of churches built before 1905 belong directly to local communes rather than the Catholic Church. This legal framework established strict secularism in French public life and assigned the ownership and maintenance of historic parish buildings to local taxpayers.
Before a municipality can sell, demolish, or alter the use of a church, the site must be formally deconsecrated through an administrative procedure known as de-affectation. Article 13 of the 1905 statute stipulates that religious use can be officially ended if religious worship ceases to take place for more than six consecutive months, barring instances of force majeure.
That legal requirement was fulfilled in the case of the first church sold in Lens, where no mass had been celebrated for an entire year prior to the sale. For small rural councils with limited budgets, the ongoing cost of heating, insuring, and maintaining aging stone edifices often prompts elected officials to approve formal deconsecration and seek outside buyers.
