Chapelle Sainte-Madeleine

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

History

The hospice Sainte-Madeleine de Bourg-en-Bresse for alienated women, run by the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint-Joseph, became established on the current site from 1826. It then welcomed 70 interned patients, entrusted to 10 nuns and a doctor, Dr Antoine Peloux. The current distribution of the site largely became fixed around 1879, even if several buildings are later. This site consists of the 'château', or Sainte-Marie boarding school, which welcomed the families of destitute patients. The reception and treatment buildings for the sick are distributed around the perimeter, opening up in the centre a vast park, formerly partially cultivated by the patients themselves. The architecture of the hospice is of the pavilion type, in order to separate the patients according to their degree of autonomy. The building set in the middle of the park and reserved for the training of nurses was built by the son of Georges Curtelin (it currently houses services of the Conseil Général de l'Ain). The first chapel, dedicated to Sainte-Madeleine, was built in 1828. A second chapel was erected in 1839, about which only limited documentation is available. Having become too small for an establishment which was expanding and welcomed, in 1884, 579 alienated women, and nearly 1000 around 1900, the decision to erect a new chapel was taken by the superior, Mère Angélique, who died in 1902 without having been able to carry out her project, which was only realised in 1933-1935. The work was then entrusted by the new superior, Mère Ambroise, to the Lyon architect Georges Curtelin (1899-1968). The bells of the carillon were blessed on 18 March 1934 by Mgr Virgile Béguin, bishop of Belley. The chapel was blessed and consecrated on 24 October 1935 by Mgr Amédée Maisonobe (1882-1954), new bishop of Belley. On this occasion, the press congratulated itself on the originality of this building, with its 'design inspired by modern art, very elegant, admirably lit and whose pious ornamentation is unified by the best taste'. The Nouvelliste de Lyon wrote: 'The preceding centuries produced powerful Romanesque basilicas and slender Gothic vaults. Our century, which also loves clarity and simplicity, is quite capable of producing other masterpieces.'

Description

a nave divided into a central vessel and two aisles of lesser height, no transept and a deep choir surrounded by what may be supposed to have already been chapels radiating around the 19th century intended for the reception of the sick. The new radiating chapels created by Curtelin are larger, and the new choir gains in elevation. The apse became polygonal, and opens onto seven radiating chapels covered with flat roofs pierced by windows. The liturgical choir is thus divided into two parts; the first space is reserved for the Sisters of Saint-Joseph, the other welcomes the sick, placed during services in the chapels surrounding the choir, originally closed by grilles (removed and partially reused), were walled up in the 1960s, to be converted into offices and meeting rooms. The new Sainte-Madeleine chapel takes its place between two earlier buildings, welcoming the sick. A porch to the north-west allows circulation between the boulevard Paul Bert and the asylum park. This porch already existed; Georges Curtelin rearranges the ground floor on the chapel side to install the sacristy, and works in a particularly careful manner on the connection between the old building and the chapel. To the north-east, a passage is arranged between the chapel and a colonnade leaning against the older building.