Eglise paroissiale Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire

English translation

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History

On 10 May 1859, Rivière Saint-Louis is erected into a parish. From 1860 to 1900, a first wooden church welcomes the faithful. The growth of the village at the end of the 19th century leads the municipality to envisage the construction of a new church. The municipal architect Henri Vasseur draws the plans for the building whose work continues from 1884 to 1900. The collapse of the five pillars and arches of the nave prompts the municipality to install a metal framework between the existing walls, to the great despair of the parish priest who compares it to a "crushed factory or a honeycomb". Of great lightness it constitutes today the whole interest of the church. The 12 cast-iron columns, crowned with capitals decorated with foliage, support the springing of broken arches. In 1941, the church is given a monumental bell tower and a new façade adorned with pinnacles with fleur-de-lis, symbol of the Virgin. Its monumental cast-iron statue, commissioned from the Roueard house in Angers, is installed with the help of workers from Gol. Symbol of the pride of a village which continues to seek to distinguish itself from the town of Saint-Louis, Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire is with Notre-Dame-de-la-Délivrance in Saint-Denis one of the most accomplished Neo-Gothic monuments in the history of Réunionnais architecture.