Église Notre-Dame

English translation

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History

The commune of Decazeville was created in 1834; one of the first decisions of the municipal council was to vote for the construction of a new church, capable of welcoming the growing population. A plot of land situated near departmental road no. 5 and the direction of the forges was acquired on 14 April 1846. The Company of coal mines and foundries of the Aveyron, headed by François Cabrol, financed part of the project. In 1843, the departmental architect, Étienne-Joseph Boissonnade submitted a first project with an estimate of 149,440 F. to the Council of civil buildings. François Cabrol did not get along with Boissonnade and decided to call upon the Parisian architect Antoine-Martin Garnaud (1796-1861), Grand Prize of Rome in 1817, who had already realized the mausoleum of the Cabrol family at the cemetery of Miramont. The first stone was laid in 1847 by Monsigneur Crozier. The buildings constructed by Garnaud are few in number and often modest. He nevertheless participated in numerous competitions and regularly presented projects to the Salons. At the 1848 Salon he exhibited the plan of the church of Decazeville as well as three sheets of churches. Like many of his peers, Garnaud took an interest in the question of church models. He regularly presented drawings on this theme to the Salons of French artists: salons of 1857 and 1859, 1861. In 1857, he published Études d'architecture chrétienne with publisher Gide et Baudry, which brought together all of his church projects ranging from the small church of hamlet, village and cantonal chef-lieu to a universal basilica which announced the great pilgrimage churches of the late 19th century. Garnaud drew inspiration from Roman and Paleochristian basilicas, forms "taken up by Byzantium which gave birth to Romanesque art, until its reactivation by the Italian Renaissance" and sought to invent a style of his own for the 19th century. In 1857, the walls of the church Notre-Dame reached 10 m. in height. Palisades and a temporary wooden roof were put in place in order to be able to hold services. In 1860, the vault was completed and the church was consecrated on 11 November 1861. Constructed in tufa from Saint-Antonin, the church presents a basilical plan with a single nave covered by vaults on pendentives and flanked by narrow vaulted aisles, the nave is punctuated by thick square stone pillars. The choir is composed of three apses, all vaulted with cul-de-four vaults. The austere treatment of the lateral façades of Decazeville is inspired by the great baths of imperial Rome and can also evoke contemporary industrial buildings, notably the halls of the Decazeville forges, lit and ventilated by series of large dormer-gables. The western façade is distinguished by its vast in-the-wall porch, playing the role of narthexes of Paleochristian churches. In 1863, Élie Cabrol, son of François Cabrol, art lover and patron, commissioned in 1860 a Way of the Cross from the symbolist painter Gustave Moreau (Paris, 1826 - Paris, 1895) who accepted the commission, but refused to sign them. These 14 paintings, classified as objects on 31 March 1965, were rapidly painted between June 1862 and February 1863. The high altar and secondary altars were realized in 1864 by the sculptor Jacques Abbal of Moissac. The stained glass windows were commissioned from the Goussard workshop of Condom (Gers), active from 1853 to 1873, founded by abbé Joseph Goussard, passionate about Christian art and his brother Bernard a pharmacist. The bell tower was only completed in 1873. On 11 October 1874, an organ of the gallery by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (classified OM in 1994) was installed on the gallery, placed above the main entrance. In 1924, a new campaign of works was launched: opening of bays in the lateral façades, mural painting of the apse by the painter Jean Ningres (1878 – 1964).