Notre-Dame-du-Travail in Paris – the church built for workers.
The Notre-Dame-du-Travail (“Church of Our Lady of Labour”) was never meant to be a monument to wealth or power. It was built for ordinary people. For labourers.
It was built between 1897 and 1902 in the rapidly growing Plaisance district of the 14th arrondissement. At the time, this was a working-class district populated by railway workers, craftsmen, and the thousands of men who built the great exhibition halls and the famous Notre-Dame Cathedral in the centre of Paris.
Rather than creating a church that looked back to the Middle Ages, Abbé Roger Soulange-Bodin and architect Jules Astruc embraced modern industry. Jules Astruc, a student of the architect Victor Laloux, designed one of the most innovative churches of its era. The exterior is traditional Romanesque stone, but the interior reveals an exposed metal skeleton rarely seen in religious architecture at the turn of the twentieth century. Instead of soaring Gothic stone vaults, rows of exposed iron columns rise toward an intricate lattice of steel beams. It was economical and practical. Metal could span large spaces with fewer supports than stone, allowing an open, light-filled interior. To soften the industrial framework, the side chapels were decorated with murals inspired by Art Nouveau.
Treasures include the frescos, the metallic floating statue called “Christ in Glory” by Jean-Jacques Bris, the grand organ, and “The Hand of the Creator” sculpted by Michel Serraz.
