 In early 1853, Charles Kolb-Bernard and his cousin, Charles Bernard, vicar general at Cambrai, created a commission with the object of building a magnificent church in honour of Our Lady of the Treille.The commission brought together representatives of the clergy and the industrial bourgeoisie of Lille, who strongly supported the creation of a new Bishopric, and soon began to think of the planned church as a future cathedral.Land in the heart of Old Lille, the site of the ancient, recently-levelled castle mound, was purchased for a sum of 223,000 francs.