The Saint Joan of Arc church, located in the Old Market square, is a modern monument dating from 1979.
The new church is due to the architect Louis Arretche (1905-1991).
Its roof takes the form of an overturned ship's hull and the nave brings together thirteen magnificent Renaissance glass walls from the old Saint-Vincent church.
Before 1944 was located not far from the square, the old Saint Vincent church, attested from the 12th century. Flamboyant Gothic style, it was one of the richest and most beautiful in Rouen. Its magnificent glass walls dated from the Renaissance. The city had them sheltered in 1939.
Excellent initiative since the Allied bombs destroyed the church in 1944.
These stained glass windows constitute an essential stage for a visit to the city of Rouen.
My first visit to this church dates from college, at the beginning of the 1980s (oops, it was already in the last century ...). The building was new, not yet "weathered" like today.
At the time, I found it "too" modern, probably because it was the first I saw that did not look like a church from the outside. I even found that it looked like a wart in this square of the Old Market with wooden facades.
Today, I got older and, seeing it again made me happy, it is part of the frame, has melted into the decor. And, over time, I think I have become more tolerant.
From the Old Market Square, you can see the cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Tower of Butter.
"If I had been lucky enough to live, I would have made great trips to visit all these extraordinary churches that say absolutely nothing about God, but everything about men, which is otherwise more stunning." -Mercury under the tongue / Sylvain Trudel-
"Every face, every stone of this venerable building is a page not only of the history of the country but also of the history of science and art. .. Everything is melted, combined, amalgamated into Notre Dame. This central and generating church is among the old churches of Paris a kind of Chimera, it has the head of one, the members of that one, the rump of the other, something of all." -Excerpt from Notre-Dame de Paris/Victor Hugo, (1832)-
The exterior of the church takes the form of a flame
"Some people respect churches. It is before the ephemeral that I kneel." -Thirteen minutes / Nicolas Rey-
"I will try to help people, but not in a church. I'm going to try to open their eyes to the beauty of the world." -The Red Notebook / Benjamin Lacombe-
"I know only one Church: it is the society of men." -Modern times: monthly review (1951 edition) /Jean-Paul Sartre-
"Days off: Correspond without any embarrassment to the chimeal celebrations in spite of the separation of church and state." -Philippe Bouvard/Bouvard from A to Z (2014)-
The thirteen windows of the Saint Joan of Arc church are impressive.
Whether one is a believer or not, one can only admire this work of goldsmithing.
A person has dedicated a site to these glass walls and anyone who is interested can see very beautiful photos on: My favorite stained glass
"For every child sent to the United States, the Church receives a donation, and the state gets rid of a weight. Everyone benefits from preserving the status quo." -Martin Sixsmith/Philomena (2014)-
"Alas! in what state of abandonment and anaemia the Church has been in since she became disinterested in art and art has withdrawn from her!" -Joris-Karl Huysmans/L'Oblate (1903), 12th-
"Separating the Church from the State is no longer enough; equally important would be to separate the religious from the identity." -Amin Maalouf/The Deadly Identities (1998)-
In memory...
By Real del Sarte (1888-1954)
The garden and the location of the pyre (at the place of the sign).
"They were simply the recognition of a debt of the State and a summons given to the creditors on this precise pledge: the property of the Church." -Jean Jaurès/Socialist History of the French Revolution (1924)-
The cross is the memorial to Joan of Arc
"Women's reason is madness; their religion is love." -The proverbs and sayings of the Arab people (1803)-
"It's not hard to do anything, if you're used to it. Just as we have practiced a mechanical art, we bend without difficulty to the practices of good religion." -The treasure of beautiful Tibetan words (1858)-
"Respect the religion of others if you want them to respect yours." -The Dictionary of Danish Proverbs (1757)-
"One is rarely of the religion of one's persecutor." -French proverb; The collection of apophtegms and axioms (1855)-
"Whatever your religion is, my door will always be open to you." -Ethiopian proverb; Abyssin proverbs and sayings (1907)-
Interior ...
"Living is going shopping and meeting an angel who doesn't know his name, opening a book and suddenly standing in a forest at the foot of emerald green stained glass, looking out the window and seeing the missing, the too sensitive." -Christian Bobin/The Slowness That Blooms, The World of Religions-
"To the colorful glows that the stained glass windows let filter, all this magnificence of oriental tale shimmers, shines, sparkles in the darkness." -Louis Marie Julien Viaud, known as Pierre Loti/Jerusalem (1894)-
"There are stained-glass windows at the back of the choir, according to Navez's drawings, which go into the disadvantages of this bastard genre." -Eugene Delacroix/Journal, July 7, 1850-
"People are like stained glass windows. They shine as bright as it is sun, but when darkness comes, their beauty only appears if they are illuminated from within." -Elisabeth Kubler-Ross-
"In the stained-glass windows of the dark basilicas, the flames of the sunset are extinguished in turn From an age that is no longer precious relics, Their domes in the azure draw a black outline" -Albertus (1832) / Théophile Gautier-
"A few spots of light in dull colors emanated from stained glass windows, but proved useless in illuminating a house that seemed to somehow revel in its own inner darkness." -Sherlock holmes: The Book of the Dead /David Stuart Davies-
The thirteen stained glass windows, created between 1520-1530, were in the choir of the old Saint-Vincent church. The glass walls illuminated the ambulatory, with the Crucifixion in the central axis. "The Life of Christ", with four stained glass windows (Childhood, Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection), illuminated the choir. To this was added the martyrdom of Saint Vincent, patron of the church.
The other windows were distributed in the chapels: the stained glass windows relating to Saint Anne and the Virgin, including the sumptuous stained glass window of the Chariots, adorned the Sainte-Anne chapel. The windows were made by the famous "Le Prince" workshop in Beauvais. The other ten are attributed to Rouen workshops, which art historians refer to as "Atelier Rouennais". We can feel very strongly the influence of the master Arnoult of Nijmegen who had left Rouen in 1513. We know little about this "workshop": the artists' signatures are missing on the glasses
Source: Stained glass found from Saint-Vincent de Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, 1995.
The vault is made of fir strips. With rounded shapes with its wooden frame, it recalls the shapes of Viking drakkars.
Overview
The nave as seen from the entrance
The choir
The rear part of the nave
"Jeanne d'Arc"( Joan of Arc) by Michel Coste -1999-
Painting at the reception
"O Joan without a tomb and without a face, you who knew that the tomb of heroes is in the hearts of the living ...."
-André Malraux-
I liked to see these two women united and admiring the glass walls of the Saint Joan of Arc church.
Close to the immense cross and looking in the same direction.
They look like two sisters ...
In fact, they are. They are my aunt and Yiayia (my mother)!
Two sisters who meet again.
A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost.
-Marion C. Garretty-
"When the bell rings ..."
"On the roofs...
"Religion: a Sunday affair." -Georg Christoph Lichtenberg / The Mirror of the Soul-
"Every man is responsible for his religion." -Gandhi-
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." -Albert Einstein-
"Troubles and adversity bring back to religion." -Francis Bacon-
"Your daily life is your temple and your religion." Khalil Gibran-
"There is no religion without mysteries." -François René de Chateaubriand-
"Blasphemy is part of the popular religion." -Antonio Machado-
"One religion is as true as another." -Robert Burton / Anatomy of Melancholy-
"We are for religion against religions." -Victor Hugo / Les Misérables-
More information by the city of Rouen here
"I believe in immortality and yet I am afraid of dying before I know it."
-Raymond Devos, humorist (1922-2006) -