While on vacation in France, we visited one of the most spectacular churches I've ever seen. It is a modern church built from reinforced concrete in the 1920s - so just 100 years old. I found the design and decoration of it totally mesmerizing.
The church is clearly modern in structural design, but taking a lot of influence from Byzantine church design, particularly on the inside.
I found the inside to be completely stunning, with the design using arches to create a fantastic large central space. The interior painting and mosaics make the inside of the church much older than it is - and parts of it that made me think back to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
The main alter and its backdrop show the mix of styles very well. You have the grand painting above, with mosaics on the wall below it. The alter is then cast in-situ concrete with mosaic inlays. Quite incredible - I love the sign of the Holy Roman empire at the bottom of the alter !
The stained glass windows were impressive too ! And we were lucky enough to catch the sun shinning beautifully through them while we were there.
Above is a statue to Saint Joan of Arc, with beautiful windows behind her. We found statues dedicated to Joan of Arc in the majority of churches and cathedrals that we visited in this part of France (Southern Normandy). I really liked seeing them.
The external patterning in the concrete is pretty impressive. I guess it must have been a mix of individually cast pieces, then built into the church as it was constructed. The planning and implementation of that during the build must have been pretty painstaking, but the result is incredible.
The mosaics were wonderful - the skill of the artist (Jean Gaudin) is amazing.
I also love the decorative mosaics that you find in the pillars and the like.
The pic above shows some of the detailing in the side doors. I just love that glass design - very Romanesque/byzantine inspired. I love seeing small detail like that in a building - something that took them extra time to install, but they decided it was important and wnated to make it look fantastic.
The vaulted central space is a masterwork of geometry. I just love how all these simple shapes; arches, squares, triangles and the upper octagons (plus more) have been integrated to work together. It must have taken ages just to work out that interconnecting pattern in the design - never mind build it !!! All of that without computer aided design !
Thats another view above - again you can see the signs of the Holy Roman Empire built into the vault space.
I was genuinely flabberghasted when we stumbled upon the church. Domfront is quite a nice town and has a beautiful medieval centre - but I dont think its a town where you'd necessarily expect to find an architectural masterpiece like this. I hadnt even heard of the town before (but then again I dont know France that well !).
It really was an impressive church to see. For an architectural lover like me, it was an amazing find.
Thats another of the cool mosaics above with quite a nice painting of St Paul to go along with it !
For me it was a completely unexpected find - the best type, and I was completely blown away by the design and artistry. Quite incredible ! It was an 11 out of 10 for me, and one I wont forget in a hurry !