Notre-Dame church of Raincy - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Reasons of construction

At the beginning of the 20th century, Raincy, of which the population more than had doubled in forty years, was a parish of suburbs whose church was too small. The law of 1905 on the separation of the Church and the State made that the choice of the architects returned to the dioceses silent partners.

It is in this context that the abbot Felix Nègre, who was cleaned senior of Raincy since July 26th, 1914, wanted to make build a new church in 1918 to commemorate the victory with the Bataille of Ourcq (between the {{1st}} and the September 5th 1914) and in homage to the city from where in September 1914 one had left the columns of the Taxis of the Marne.

In 1922, and in spite of some generous gifts, the joined together sum was still ridiculous. The priest of Meudon-Bellevue, Negro younger brother of Felix, had among his parishioners Gabriel Thomas, financier of the construction of the Théâtre of the Fields-Élysées. It is by this skew that the parish of Raincy came into contact with Antoine Bourdelle, Maurice Denis and the brothers Perret.

The first stone was posed the April 30th 1922, and work was undertaken quickly, since the church was inaugurated and devoted fourteen months later, the June 17th 1923 by Monseigneur Gibier, évèque of Versailles.

A concrete church

The classicism associated with modernity

It is an outstanding realization in the history of architecture, because for the first time of the architects designed a church entirely in Reinforced concrete, with structure in thin shell, and asserted this choice deliberately, by leaving material to the rough state. The lightness of the 32 slim columns and the light of the large canopies to the subtle chromatic variations define a new Esthétique, print of a great classicism: a central Nave flanked of a collateral on each side, the Clocher (inspired of the medieval turn-lantern) is above the Porche over the width of the nave, between the Baptistère and the Chapelle of the dead ones which are at the end of the collateral ones, the principal originality of the church is its occidentation: the furnace bridge is in the West.

For Peter Hakes, “the result gives undoubtedly the most revolutionary building built in the first third of the 20th century”.

Rationalism and saving in means

Architecture is art to make sing the fulcrum| Auguste Perret |conference given on May 31st 1933 to the Institute of art and archeology of the University of Paris

The church is impressed rationalist doctrines: the form rises from the structure. It is made up of an assembly of independent elements having each one a structural role. The carrying elements, 32 fine columns isolated in space, are highlighted and detached from the walls to show the independence of the carrying structure and the fillings which constitute the space limits of the church.

Auguste Perret attempted to use a minimum of elements (only one type of column used four times to form the pillars of the bell-tower, 5 types of confined used for the canopies, the railings, the grid of the chorus, the communion table, the perforation of the vaults, etc) to control the costs of construction (by standardizing the moulds and by allowing implementation a fast the hand) and harmonizes it of the unit.

Critical success

It has a mask (frontage) which covers the beauty of the cut of the reinforced concrete vessel (, according to industrial principles). | Le Corbusier, in connection with the church of Raincy

The critical recognition of Notre-Dame of Raincy was immediate. A large range of the French reviews of art, technique or opinion rented the work of the Perret brothers and its repercussion quickly made echo in Italy, Great Britain, Suisse, Czechoslovakia, with the the United States, and elsewhere…

In 1938, with Tokyo, a counterpart of Notre-Dame of Raincy was built on the scale half for the University of the Christian women.

Later developments

It is in addition about the first church for which the Perret brothers intervene as architects (they had taken part as contractors in the construction of the Cathédrale of Oran in 1908). The other churches projected and/or built by Perret are variations of the church of Raincy:

the Holy-Therese church of Montmagny (1925),
the contest for the church Jeanne-in Arc of the Vault in the District of the Vault in Paris (1926),
the vault of Arcueil (1927),
the Saint-Joseph church of Le Havre (1951).

The stained glasses

The stained glasses are an essential element of the Notre-Dame church of Raincy. A chromatic rise makes it possible to pass from a cold blue and tender green at the entry to constant blue marial of red of the sanctuary. The frontages north and south, treated let us tons some hot, present variations of yellows, pinks and ochers, with keys of green and blue.

The decorative parts were entirely created by the Master-glassmaker Marguerite Huré, who realized for a budget limited in a little more than one year (1922-1923) the unit of the geometrical reasons. They are painted with cold varnish on white glass, but this process excluding cooking being able to be only provisional, it will be taken again a few years later in northern frontage by a setting with lead, on the southern frontage a party of drawing to the greyness laid down on ancient glass of color will be adopted. To make bring out each glazed element and isolate it from her framework, Marguerite Huré creates a net of white pearls which filters the light and which contributes to the overall unit.

The stained glasses were designed like an iconographic program of ten large canopies. They were carried out by Marguerite Huré on paperboards of Maurice Denis (for the illustrated parts). In the center of each canopy a stained glass illustrating is the life of Marie:

“the Annunciation”
“the Visitation”
“the Nativity of Jesus”
“the Wedding at Cana”, Auguste Perret figure among the guests
“Marie meets Jesus carrying his cross”
“Marie with the foot of the cross”
“the communion of Marie”
“Marie the day of the Pentecost”
“the Assomption”
“To remember the victory of Ourcq in 1914”, this stained glass (sometimes called the Virgin with the Taxis ) represents taxis, the “hairy ones” and generals (Foch, Gallieni and Maunoury, whose headquarters was with the town hall of Raincy), in remembering the departure of Raincy, in September 1914, of one of the columns of the Taxis of the Marne.

One can note that these stained glasses are on a square screen (10*10 cm) which stops for the important components of the drawing, namely the faces and the hands. The choice of this party, inspired by the stained glasses of the church Saint-Eustace returns to Marguerite Huré, Maurice Denis, while giving the paperboards to him, had not given any indication as for the cut of glasses.

The tympanum

Above the main door, the Bas-relief is a Pietà of Antoine Bourdelle which was set up and was inaugurated the September 19th 1999.

This bronze had been ordered during the Années 1920 by the Nègre canon in Bourdelle, but for lack of appropriations the artist carried out only one draft preserved at the Musée Bourdelle. It was necessary to wait seventy years to see bronze cast and installed.

Organ

The current Orgue was conceived by the Organ builder John Abbey in 1875 - 1876, for the Saint-Louis church of Raincy. It was transferred to the Notre-Dame church during her construction in 1923, and was restored in 1957 by Beuchet-Debierre. It has a certain historical value since it is on him that for the first time John Abbey his technique of the harmonic brake inaugurated. Unfortunately, the restoration of 1957 removed any trace of this process and altered considerably the composition of the instrument.

The organ is currently in a pitiful state worsened by recent work of restoration, a creation project of a new instrument was launched. However several questions arose: is it necessary to re-use part of piping for the new instrument or should not one replace it with his platform of origin in the Saint-Louis church of Raincy for which it had been conceived, or to simply give it purely and at a class of organ or any other interested organization?

The decision was made to replace the instrument: a subscription is launched near the parishioners and of all the friends of Notre-Dame of Raincy.

Restoration

Auguste Perret had faith in the Béton, however forty years later this famous matter indestructible disaggregated. As of the Years 1960, deteriorations were noted. The restoration of concrete buildings was a new question: it was necessary to include/understand the causes of degradations which could come from the environment (climate, grounds) as of the structure of the building or of material itself (whose ageing remains badly known still nowadays). The concrete employed at the beginning of the Années 1920 was still experimental, and the economic constraints of the building site of Notre-Dame of Raincy could have consequences on the quality of the concrete and its implementation.

Studies undertaken since 1975, it arises that construction suffered from the speed and the economy of the realization: the concrete contained too much lime and mixing water too many and have a heterogeneous texture (mainly noted on the level of the resumptions of casting), the reinforcements too slightly coated.

The restoration of Notre-Dame of Raincy proceeded in several work campaigns: ; Roofs: The resumption of the roofs, carried out between 1988 and 1989, showed the good behavior of the vaults. The sealing was remade and the problems of variations of températire between the interior vaults and the external hull were solved by an insulation. ; Bell-tower: The restoration of the bell-tower, in 1991, was more problematic. Indeed, the aspect of the concrete varied according to the faces of the bell-tower according to their exposure to the bad weather and the dominant winds. Each recovery was thus treated on a case-by-case basis. ; Frontages: The frontages were restored in three successive campaigns between 1992 and 1996. Confined southern frontage were replaced entirely, confined them new were manufactured on the resin concrete building site with stainless reinforcements. In the span of the baptismal font, on the right of the bell-tower, the state of confined origin allowed to try to preserve several bands of them, which made it possible to leave in place original elements and the corresponding stained glasses like their assembly of origin. During these work campaigns, the stained glasses were deposited and restored by a Master-glassmaker: their state was excellent, only the lead network has changed being.

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