3 contemporary churches of the 15th arrondissement

Electric lines stretch the sky, the railway bar the perspective, a road gateway appears from nothing to plunge back. And, in the midst of urban confusion, a white church: Notre-Dame-du-Travail. Funny place to start a walk. And yet, the choice of the place, below the Montparnasse station, was that of the parish priest of the pleasure district, at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. To link Paris to Brest (Finistère), the railroad made in 1840 a breakthrough across fields from the Maine station, as it was then called. The new route runs in two the parish of Saint-Lambert de Vaugirard. And on both sides of the rails, the no man’s land people people with misery.

For them, Father Soulange-Bodin launches the site of Notre-Dame-du-Travail, completed in 1901. Rue Vercingétorix, neither the facade nor the side walls announces the interior audacity. The priest and architect Jules Astruc wanted a framework that speaks to the workers. They are inspired by the industrial hall of their time. The iron is recovered from the Palace of the Industry of the Universal Exhibition of 1855, bolted and riveted in the manner of Eiffel, in an aerial geometry pulling towards the sky. Once outside, the look has changed. We go from an allege step to the other side of the railroad, via boulevard Pasteur and rue du Cotentin. The Pierre-Adrien-Dalpayrat garden (a ceramic pioneer), embedded in the middle of contemporary buildings, is an island of harmony. It leads to rue de la Procession. This is the thread, tenuous, which still links the pleasure district to the parish of Saint-Lambert de Vaugirard.

Symbolic millefeuille

Facing n ° 47, a brown cube in a metallic resil: Notre-Dame-de-l’Ache-d’Alliance, Consecrated in 1998. Cardinal Lustiger wanted it in the middle of the anonymous buildings of the 1970s. Everything is a symbol in the building designed with the architecturestudio firm, to whom Paris owes the Institut du Monde Arab.

Jacqueline Dornic, who provides visits, presents it with an image: “The church is a millefeuille. The baptistery is the door, as baptism brings into the community of believers. A strong choice, born from the legal and urban areas of grip on the ground. The cube, evocative of the trunk containing the tables of the law, is perched on stilts. From there, a narrow inner staircase introduced into the church. Still above are the priests’ accommodation, then an open-air cloister.

Inside, wherever the eyes arise, the motif of the cross challenges. The one that dominates the altar is a simple light projection. “A rare device,” says Jacqueline Dornic. While the workers carried out lighting tests for the organ opposite, this cross appeared. We received it as a gift. The new community has allowed time to live in the place before ordering the two stained glass windows to the artist Martial Raysse. The colors burst, while David dances in front of the ark of alliance and in vis-à-vis, the rounded bellies of Elisabeth and Marie face each other.

The wandering continues gently. The village frame of the district appears. Rue Borromée, the passer-by puts his steps in those “of the faithful”-old name of the track until 1812. Along rue Blomet, which adjoins the bedside of Saint-Lambert de Vaugirard, then that of Father Groult, the crossing of the old village of Vaugirard led to that of Grenelle.

Technical engineering

From there, the rue de l’Eglise traces a last decided line to the west and Saint-Christophe-de-Javel, Inspired by… Notre-Dame-du-Travail. Another, darker atmosphere; But even concerns of the poorest and even recourse to advanced techniques. During the 1920s, in the district dedicated to the transport industry, the travelers’ owner watched over the parish. Here, armed cement has put its qualities at the service of space. In a prefabricated version to combat the winter unemployment of building workers. Leaving the scene, the blessing gesture of Saint Christophe, embarked by plane or racing car on the exterior frescoes, follows us. Like an invitation to welcome novelty with confidence.