From 1933
until 1936 the Priory St. Bathilde in Vanves is constructed. Vanves is a part of
Paris. The complex was designed for a Benedictine missionorder. Just like at
Kraainhem, Belgium, this complex is built in one time. Due to that the complex
is very uniform. The priory tracks attention by the high uprising roof of the
chapel. The part where the altar original was placed has a different kind of
roof. The decoration at the outside of the complex is different this time: no
colored belt, but only a different color of brick to decorate the frieze. It
looks like the teeth of a saw (in dutch: zaagtandfries). On the roof is a
mosaïc in red and blue. The priory has no tower, only a belfry with 3 bells.
The terrain
used has a fall of 7 metres. At the front of the priory is a large stairway
just behind the entrance, so you can climb to the chapel at the second floor.
At the backside this is street-level..
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In 2011
we visited this priory. Constructionworks told us there was a change going
on. The nuns had sold about a quart of their cloister and are nowadays using
only the chapel and the parts behind it. The part at the frontside, at Rue
d’Issy, will becom a hospital for mentally ill people. |
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inside the cloister |
The old refectory
has a concrete ceiling, supported by brick coloms. These coloms stand in the
middle of the room. Most of this refectory is part of the re-building of 2011.
A small part can still be accessed from the monastery.
And the
most beautiful part of the priory can be found at the capitulary-room. This
room is nowadays used as refectory. One colom stands in the middle, like a
palmtree it’s leaves reaching out to the side. Bellot has probably seen works
of Gaudi, because this palmtree looks like Guell parc....
Bellot is
often linked to Gaudi, using parabolic arches. There is one major difference:
Gaudi constructed his arches with a necklet, Bellot uses mathematics to
calculate his arches. For more information, see the explanation at "his architecture".
photos: a.w.a.lukassen and a.a. lukassen, august 2011
Chapter room (nowadays refectory)
with ‘palmtree’ |
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