Places of worship have been the blind spot of the modern movement. This movement revolutionized architecture at the beginning of the 20th century.my century, based on the qualities of reinforced concrete, accompanied the transition of Western societies towards the era of the masses, driven by the illusion that, with progress, men would soon no longer need God.
But God did not let himself be buried easily and we continued, here and there, to build churches, and these commissions, however sporadic, were often opportunities for architects to free themselves from a certain number of dogmas. The churches built by Le Corbusier (1887-1965) in Ronchamp, in the Haute-Saône (1955), or in Firminy, on the Loire (1973), are eloquent examples, since they materialize the Pope’s break with the movement that he – even with The Religion of Orthogonality – advocated.
Georges-Henri Pingusson (1894-1978), one of his brilliant disciples, also found fertile ground for experimentation in places of worship, especially since he was a practising Catholic. Appointed chief architect of reconstruction in Saarland and then in Moselle after the Second World War, this great admirer of Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) took advantage of the situation of four small churches destroyed by bombing to develop four highly original projects.
Religious Archipelago
Located in and around Metz, these churches, which can be discovered during a minibus tour during the European Heritage Days on 21 and 22 September, are the highlight of an event in Pingusson that will also be one of the highlights of the National Architecture Days (18, 19 and 20 October) and the Biennial of the network of architectural houses, the programme of which was initially planned (14 to 17 November) in Nancy and Metz.
This event also includes an exhibition dedicated to the architect’s work (derived from the one held at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in Paris in 2018), which will help to reposition this religious archipelago in a prolific oeuvre, whose most famous works are the Hôtel Latitude 43 (1932) in Saint-Tropez (Var), a true masterpiece of the “liner” style, and the Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation (1962), a sunken bunker dug into the earth of the Île de la Cité in Paris.
The Intervention and Rescue Centre (1965-1978) will also be open to the public. Recognizable by its drying tower, a modernist sculptural building that characterizes it in the city, this small fortified village located in the center of Metz was built around a fire station, to accommodate the firemen and their families. It is now in disuse, its buildings are very dilapidated and the question of its preservation is being debated, while an eco-district project is to be developed on the site.
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