Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'Assy
Encyclopedia
The church of Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'Assy (Our Lady Full of Grace of the Plateau d'Assy) is a Roman Catholic church in France
, constructed on the plateau d'Assy
between 1937 and 1946. It faces Mont Blanc
, and is within the territory of the commune of Passy
, in the Haute-Savoie
department. Constructed at the urging of canon
Jean Devémy and designed by the Savoyard architect Maurice Novarina
, the church is celebrated for its decoration, contributed by some of the best-known artists of the twentieth century. It is also viewed as an important landmark in the development of modern sacred art
; its consecration
in 1950 caused much consternation within the ranks of the clergy
of France, who had hitherto been accustomed to more traditionally classical structures.
On June 11, 2004, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'Assy was classed as a monument historique de France
.
, the plateau d'Assy was known as a spa
area, and was especially popular with sufferers of tuberculosis
. At one point close to twenty sanatorium
s could be found in the area. Some of these were equipped with small chapel
s, while others were visited by chaplain
s who catered to the sick. There was, however, no church for the area.
In 1935, Jean Devémy, then serving as chaplain to the sanatorium of Sancellemoz
, hit upon the idea of building a church dedicated to serving not only the sick of the spas, but also the personnel who worked at them. With the blessing of the bishop
of Annecy
, Florent du Bois de la Villerabel, he decided to hold an architectural contest to design the new structure. The contest took place in 1937, and was won by the young architect Maurice Novarina. Novarina's plan was to use materials native to the region in the construction of the church; this would include various types of stone
- including slate
- and wood
. The work would be given to local concerns. Construction began in 1938 and was for the most part concluded at the start of World War II.
Even as the church was being erected, Devémy was considering ways of decorating the new building. While he was considering his options, his friend, the artist and Dominican
Marie-Alain Couturier
, invited him to Paris to visit an art exhibition. Devémy was greatly taken with a stained glass
window of Georges Rouault
which depicted the Passion
of Christ
. Supposedly, when he measured the windows of the church upon his return, the Rouault window was found to be an exact fit for the structure. Devémy referred to this incident as the "miracle of Assy".
Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'Assy was formally blessed in 1941; in that same year the crypt
was opened for services.
; it is the same type of stone frequently used to build chalet
s in the Savoie. The roof is pointed, and is meant to sustain large amounts of snow; the foundation of the structure is solidly anchored in the soil
. The church is topped by a massive twenty-eight-meter bell tower
, carefully designed to withstand local tectonic movements. Eight massive pillar
s support a hood to a depth of five meters. The interior of the building is meant to resemble a Roman
chapel, with a rectangular nave
flanked by two aisle
s. The choir is semicircular, surrounded by an ambulatory
and sitting above the crypt. Arcades
mounted on monolithic pillars separate different portions of the structure.
s, sculpture
s, tapestries
, stained glass, ceramics, and mosaic
s to the church were Pierre Bonnard
, Fernand Léger
, Jean Lurçat
, his student Paul Cosandier, Germaine Richier
, Georges Rouault
, Jean Bazaine, Henri Matisse
, Georges Braque
, Jacques Lipchitz
, Marc Chagall
, Constant Demaison, Ladislas Kijno
, Claude Mary, Carlo Sergio Signori, and Théodore Strawinsky. The artists were chosen for their skill and not for their religious bent; this was a hallmark of Couturier's manner of thinking about religious art.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, constructed on the plateau d'Assy
Plateau d'Assy
Plateau d'Assy is a region in the French Alps, in Haute-Savoie department, France, near the border of Italy. The plateau, at an altitude of 3,450 feet in the foothills of Mont Blanc, is noted for its beautiful scenery and healthful climate. Primarily an agricultural district, the plateau is...
between 1937 and 1946. It faces Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc or Monte Bianco , meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union. It rises above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence...
, and is within the territory of the commune of Passy
Passy, Haute-Savoie
Passy is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.Located there is the Sancellemoz sanatorium, where Professor Marie Curie died.Lac Vert is located in the commune....
, in the Haute-Savoie
Haute-Savoie
Haute-Savoie is a French department in the Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. It borders both Switzerland and Italy. The capital is Annecy. To the north is Lake Geneva and Switzerland; to the south and southeast are the Mont Blanc and Aravis mountain ranges and the French entrance to the Mont...
department. Constructed at the urging of canon
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
Jean Devémy and designed by the Savoyard architect Maurice Novarina
Maurice Novarina
Maurice Novarina was a French architect; born in Thonon-les-Bains, in Haute-Savoie, he died in the town of his birth. He is best known for having designed the church of Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'Assy. He was a student of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, and later...
, the church is celebrated for its decoration, contributed by some of the best-known artists of the twentieth century. It is also viewed as an important landmark in the development of modern sacred art
Sacred art
Sacred art is imagery intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. Sacred art involves the ritual and cultic practices and practical and operative aspects of the path of the spiritual realization within the bosom of the tradition in question....
; its consecration
Consecration
Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...
in 1950 caused much consternation within the ranks of the clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
of France, who had hitherto been accustomed to more traditionally classical structures.
On June 11, 2004, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'Assy was classed as a monument historique de France
Monument historique
A monument historique is a National Heritage Site of France. It also refers to a state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building or a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, or gardens, bridges, and other structures, because of their...
.
History
Before World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the plateau d'Assy was known as a spa
Spa
The term spa is associated with water treatment which is also known as balneotherapy. Spa towns or spa resorts typically offer various health treatments. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times. Such practices have been popular worldwide, but are...
area, and was especially popular with sufferers of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. At one point close to twenty sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
s could be found in the area. Some of these were equipped with small chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
s, while others were visited by chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
s who catered to the sick. There was, however, no church for the area.
In 1935, Jean Devémy, then serving as chaplain to the sanatorium of Sancellemoz
Sancellemoz
Sancellemoz is a sanatorium in the town of Passy, in Haute-Savoie, eastern France. Professor Marie Curie died in the sanatorium Sancellemoz....
, hit upon the idea of building a church dedicated to serving not only the sick of the spas, but also the personnel who worked at them. With the blessing of the bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of Annecy
Annecy
Annecy is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy , 35 kilometres south of Geneva.-Administration:...
, Florent du Bois de la Villerabel, he decided to hold an architectural contest to design the new structure. The contest took place in 1937, and was won by the young architect Maurice Novarina. Novarina's plan was to use materials native to the region in the construction of the church; this would include various types of stone
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
- including slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
- and wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
. The work would be given to local concerns. Construction began in 1938 and was for the most part concluded at the start of World War II.
Even as the church was being erected, Devémy was considering ways of decorating the new building. While he was considering his options, his friend, the artist and Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
Marie-Alain Couturier
Marie-Alain Couturier
Père Marie-Alain Couturier, known as Father Couturier was a Dominican friar, designer of stained glass windows, famous for his modern inspiration of Sacred art.-Life:...
, invited him to Paris to visit an art exhibition. Devémy was greatly taken with a stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
window of Georges Rouault
Georges Rouault
Georges Henri Rouault[p] was a French Fauvist and Expressionist painter, and printmaker in lithography and etching.-Childhood and education:Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family...
which depicted the Passion
Passion (Christianity)
The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
. Supposedly, when he measured the windows of the church upon his return, the Rouault window was found to be an exact fit for the structure. Devémy referred to this incident as the "miracle of Assy".
Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'Assy was formally blessed in 1941; in that same year the crypt
Crypt
In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....
was opened for services.
Architecture
In collaboration with Édouard Malot, Novarina designed a church to be built out of local stone, called Taveyannaz sandstoneSandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
; it is the same type of stone frequently used to build chalet
Chalet
A chalet , also called Swiss chalet, is a type of building or house, native to the Alpine region, made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof with wide, well-supported eaves set at right angles to the front of the house.-Definition and origin:...
s in the Savoie. The roof is pointed, and is meant to sustain large amounts of snow; the foundation of the structure is solidly anchored in the soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
. The church is topped by a massive twenty-eight-meter bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
, carefully designed to withstand local tectonic movements. Eight massive pillar
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s support a hood to a depth of five meters. The interior of the building is meant to resemble a Roman
Roman architecture
Ancient Roman architecture adopted certain aspects of Ancient Greek architecture, creating a new architectural style. The Romans were indebted to their Etruscan neighbors and forefathers who supplied them with a wealth of knowledge essential for future architectural solutions, such as hydraulics...
chapel, with a rectangular nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
flanked by two aisle
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
s. The choir is semicircular, surrounded by an ambulatory
Ambulatory
The ambulatory is the covered passage around a cloister. The term is sometimes applied to the procession way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar....
and sitting above the crypt. Arcades
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
mounted on monolithic pillars separate different portions of the structure.
Decorative scheme
The church is best known for its rich interior decoration, which Devémy commissioned from some of the most famous artists of the first half of the twentieth century; consequently, its interior scheme has been said to serve as a microcosm of early modernism and of the era's changing conception of sacred art. Devémy was able to contact many of the artists through Father Couturier, and most who were asked accepted with enthusiasm. Among those who contributed paintingPainting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
s, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s, tapestries
Tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom, however it can also be woven on a floor loom as well. It is composed of two sets of interlaced threads, those running parallel to the length and those parallel to the width ; the warp threads are set up under tension on a...
, stained glass, ceramics, and mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
s to the church were Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:...
, Fernand Léger
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
, Jean Lurçat
Jean Lurçat
Jean Lurçat was a French artist noted for his role in the revival of contemporary tapestry.-Biography:He was born in Bruyères, Vosges, the son of Lucien Jean Baptiste Lurçat and Marie Emilie Marguerite L'Hote. He was the brother of André Lurçat, who became an architect...
, his student Paul Cosandier, Germaine Richier
Germaine Richier
Germaine Richier was a French sculptor.Born in Grans, Richier began her studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Montpellier; in 1926 she went to work with Antoine Bourdelle, remaining in his studio until his death in 1929. There she became acquainted with Alberto Giacometti, although the two were...
, Georges Rouault
Georges Rouault
Georges Henri Rouault[p] was a French Fauvist and Expressionist painter, and printmaker in lithography and etching.-Childhood and education:Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family...
, Jean Bazaine, Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
, Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
, Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz was a Cubist sculptor.Jacques Lipchitz was born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, son of a building contractor in Druskininkai, Lithuania, then within the Russian Empire...
, Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
, Constant Demaison, Ladislas Kijno
Ladislas Kijno
Ladislas Kijno is a French painter. Born in Warsaw, he moved with his family to France in 1925, settling in the community of Nœux-les-Mines in the Pas-de-Calais. Before becoming a painter he studied philosophy with Jean Grenier....
, Claude Mary, Carlo Sergio Signori, and Théodore Strawinsky. The artists were chosen for their skill and not for their religious bent; this was a hallmark of Couturier's manner of thinking about religious art.