The enameled panels of the main doors and the windows were all designed by Le Corbusier. The inner surface of the roof does not touch the walls, permitting a thin horizontal shaft of light to enter. The roof is composed of two thin concrete shells (about two inches thick) held apart by seven beams (each different) that rest on columns contained in the walls. The east, north, and west walls and chapel towers are built of reclaimed stones, are curvatured for greater stability, and are covered with cement gun plaster (whitewashed gunite concrete) the south wall, mostly hollow, is a gunite shell structured with concrete posts and beams. Utilizing the natural site of the hillside, an outdoor sanctuary with altar and pulpit is permanently installed to serve the exceptional crowds on pilgrimage days. The nave can accommodate about 200 people (seating designed for 48) and serves well for small groups or for individual worship. The chapel has a human scale of modest dimension with the nave varying in height from about 15 ½ feet at its lowest to 33 feet at its highest over the main altar. Construction began in the spring of 1953 and ended in 1955. Le Corbusier (Charles Édouard Jeanneret, architect, painter, writer), engaged by a diocesan committee animated by Canon Ledeur, drew plans for a new chapel that were approved by Archbishop Dubourg of Besan çon on Jan. The present structure was preceded by two churches: the first, probably a Romanesque structure dedicated to Our Lady of September (month of pilgrimages), was given an extension in the 19th century and was destroyed by fire in 1913 a second church (Neo –Gothic) was raised in its place, but in September 1944 the hill became a battlefront between French and German troops, and the church was reduced to crumbling walls. Notre-Dame du Haut Ronchamp is a pilgrimage shrine chapel situated on the hill of Ronchamp (Haute-Sa ône) in eastern France, dedicated on Jand an important achievement in 20th-century church architecture.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |