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Church of Sainte-Catherine

Briançon
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Descriptif détaillé

To this end, the bishop appointed Father Julien Merle in 1928 (who served the parish of Pont-de-Cervières with his brother, the parish priest Maurice Merle) and gave him the task of building a church for the new parish. In the meantime, worship was held in a large room in the Schappe factory, which was made available to the local inhabitants. However, they went to the Collegiate Church for baptisms, marriages and funerals. Tired of having to go to the upper town, the inhabitants mobilised and thus participated in the rapid construction of the church in Rue Alphand. It was placed under the patronage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The first mass was celebrated on 13 August 1933, in the presence of the new bishop, Monseigneur Bonnabel, the mayor, J. Pons, accompanied by his deputies and town councillors, and the director of the Schappe factory, M. Guérin.
The new church is mounted on a metal structure, originally in one piece. The concrete walls are flanked by buttresses inspired by Romanesque art and imitate ashlar. A short bell tower is placed in line with the portal. It is reminiscent of the bell towers of the Cistercian churches of Provence. The bells bear the names of their donors: Jeanne Marie, Marie Thérèse and Marie Simone. The building has a rectangular plan with a flat chevet. The nave, with white walls, is covered with a vault evoking an upturned ship's hull. A Way of the Cross with modern lines enlivens the wall. It is carved in slate and is very sober. On either side of the triumphal arch are the baptistery (under a photograph of the sculpted group of the Collegiate Church's baptismal font) and an altar dedicated to the Virgin, represented by an 18th century gilded statue in boiled cardboard. The other statues, in plaster, represent St Catherine, St Joseph and St Anthony of Padua. They are white in colour and are representative of the St. Sulpician style in favour at the time. The chancel, highlighted in yellow, is illuminated by a rose window made of warm-coloured glass tiles symbolising the resurrection of Christ, replacing the damaged original stained glass. The sacred space is articulated around a larch altar, the work of A. Prouvé, who also made the tabernacle, and at the back is a wrought iron communion table, made by L. Jullien, decorated with chalices and bunches of grapes.
The interior of the church was first restored after the Second Vatican Council and then in 1983, receiving a few modifications that gave it its current appearance. The latest works concern the porch, covered with larch shingles, carried out between 1999 and 2000 with the help of the Compagnons du devoir in order to create a place of conviviality and to protect the faithful from falling ice from the bell tower.

    Code postal
    05100
    Commune
    Briançon
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