Church of L'Immaculée Conception, Audincourt

This church has a skeleton of concrete. The outer walls are covered with stucco and so the whole church looks to be made of concrete. The church so fits its surrounding environment, Audincourt is an industrial community.

The tower has an multi-angular clock room, on a rectangular base, giving it the looks of a minaret.

The outer walls are not straight, but angled, it looks somewhat like a harmonica. These space is used for confessional and statues. The walls are flat near the windows.

The alley at the backside of the church is not parallel to the church so the church is bigger at the left-side. The extra space is used for a chapel. The sanctuary has five sides and is angled to the outside.

backside, with chapel

The supporting arches in the inside are all made of concrete and the ceiling is also made of concrete. The non-supporting walls between the arches are made of bricks. Above the footpaths at both sides of the nave the concrete is open. The great planes on the ceiling have each a different type of colouring. In the nave the colours used are grey-blue and white, in the transept and the dome the dominant colour is red and orange and the sanctuary is dark blue with black..

The altar has moved to the centre of the transept. The communion banks are still present and the sanctuary is not badly reconstructed. The seats of the transepts were rotated towards the new altar in the middle.

There is no pipe organ.

Two other members of L'Arche cooperated in this church: The stained-glass was made by Valentine Reyre, sculptor Henri Charlier made the white statue of the virgin Mary.

The church was consecrated in July 1932.

The priest who founded this parish rests in a grave in the baptistery, which is at the base of the tower.

Photo’s: A.W.A. Lukassen en A.A. Lukassen, July 2009