Word: ronchamp
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...World War II, the villagers of Ronchamp (pop. 1,900), in France's Vosges foothills, faced an old. familiar problem: how to rebuild the chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut atop a nearby hill called Haul Lieu. Hallowed since pagan days, Haut Lieu lies near the invasion route through the Belfort Gap, and in war it makes a prime military observation post. Over the centuries the chapel has been repeatedly destroyed; each time it has been faithfully rebuilt by loyal parishioners...
After liberating French troops knocked out the church again in 1944, a local committee headed by a lawyer, a manufacturer and the curé decided to save on building costs, construct the new church in reinforced concrete. Even in provincial Ronchamp, the name of the best architect for the job was obvious: Swiss-born Charles Edouard Jeanneret. world famous under his professional name, Le Corbusier,* as Europe's leading exponent of reinforced concrete...
Shape & Sound. Hats in hand, a village delegation waited on Le Corbusier in Paris, got a brusque turndown from the master. But soon afterwards Le Corbusier showed up in Ronchamp. climbed Haut Lieu, and after peering around the site, began making quick architectural notes. For Le Corbusier, who is currently building a new capital city at Chandigarh in India's Punjab (TIME, June 8, 1953) and erecting a second edition of his much-discussed Marseille "radiant city" outside Nantes, the opportunity to build his first church was irresistible. What particularly caught his interest was the problem of designing...
...Ungodly & Ungainly." As Le Corbusier's chapel in rough concrete and white plaster began to take form atop Haut Lieu, Ronchamp villagers threw up their hands in horror. The Walls, instead of rising straight upwards, sloped inward or outward like sets for a surrealist movie. The ceiling sagged like a tent ceiling. The main church tower, looking like an ocean liner's funnel, and two lesser towers served only as light wells for chapels within...
...Corbusier. The broad church door also bore a symbolic painting by Le Corbusier, done in enamel. Capping it all was a swelling, sausage-roll roof from which extends a mighty spout to carry rain water to a concrete tank. Said Abbé Besançon, one of Ronchamp's priests: the church is "ungodly and ungainly...