Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix de Yamoussoukro

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Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix

The Basilica Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix ( German of  Our Lady of Peace ) in Yamoussoukro in the Ivory Coast state is a Roman Catholic church in the Yamoussoukro diocese . The building was built from 1985 to 1988 according to plans by Pierre Fakhoury and is formally modeled on St. Peter's Basilica . With an area of ​​around 8,000 m² and a dome height of 158.1 m, it is one of the largest and tallest church buildings in the world and can accommodate around 11,000 people. The church was founded by the first President of the Ivory Coast, Félix Houphouët-Boigny . In 1990 it was inaugurated by Pope John Paul II and has the title of a minor basilica . The Pallottine community is responsible for administration and pastoral care .

The diocese's cathedral is the much smaller Cathédrale Saint-Augustin .

history

View of Notre-Dame de la Paix

The first president of the Ivory Coast, Félix Houphouët-Boigny , named Yamoussoukro, the city of his birth, as the country's new capital in March 1983. Under his leadership, several major construction projects were started there, including the construction of a basilica based on the model of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The foundation stone was laid on August 10, 1985. After only three years and three months of construction, the church was completed. Officially, the entire construction project was paid for from the private assets of Houphouët-Boigny and has since been maintained by the interest of a Swiss blocked account. After a long wait the basilica on September 10, 1990 by Pope John Paul II. As part of an African tour of the Holy Mother of God ordained and received her title. The reason for the delay was the fact that the Pope made his participation in the ceremony dependent on a promise to build a hospital near the church. In fact, the implementation of this project did not begin until ten years later, and a university that had also been announced was still in the planning phase in 2007. The hospital that was promised to the Pope did not go into operation until January 2015. In 1992, Michael Jackson let Houphouët-Boigny guide him through the church.

architecture

View of the altar

The architect of this church is the native Lebanese Pierre Fakhoury . Although the so-called basilica is structurally based on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, there are considerable deviations from the original, especially since Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix is ​​essentially a central building , while the church in Rome clearly corresponds to a longitudinal building . Furthermore, the dome is slightly lower than that of St. Peter's Basilica. However, the lantern and the cross installed on it are larger, making the basilica 158 m high (see list of tallest sacral buildings ).

With an area of ​​around 30,000 m², the basilica of Notre-Dame de la Paix (apart from the height of the dome) is higher, longer and wider than the model in Rome, which has a built-up area of ​​15,000 m². The actual church building, however, is smaller than St. Peter's Basilica and offers around 7,000 seats and 11,000 standing places (in comparison St. Peter's Basilica: up to 20,000 people).

The Notre-Dame de la Paix basilica was built from Italian marble . Glass mosaic windows made in France adorn an area of ​​7,000 m².

criticism

Despite its relative prosperity compared to its neighbors, the Ivory Coast is a developing country with major social problems, in which Catholicism is a minority religion. Therefore, both human rights groups and many church associations around the world criticized the donations for this building, the total construction costs of which are said to have amounted to the equivalent of over 200 million euros. Quite a few spoke of President Houphouët-Boigny's addiction to waste, as the money in the social budget of the highly indebted state would have been much better invested. Even Houphouët-Boigny's assurances that he had paid for the entire construction of the basilica with his private fortune did nothing to change the controversy about the justification of such a project, but on the contrary raised questions about the origin of such a large fortune.

Web links

Commons : Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix de Yamoussoukro  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Holy See : Dedicace de la Basilique de Notre Dame de la Paix - Homelie du Pape Jean-Paul II. Yamoussoukro (Cote-d´Ivore) Lundi September 10, 1990
  2. ↑ a b R. Bruder-Pasewald: Africa's most bizarre church: The huge basilica of Yamoussoukro, in: BNN fan entertainment for the weekend, Whitsun 2020, p. 1.
  3. ↑ a b Monica Mark West Africa Correspondent: Yamoussoukro's Notre-Dame de la Paix, the world's largest basilica - a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 37 . In: The Guardian . May 15, 2015, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed July 11, 2020]).
  4. ↑ An African Vatican: The World's Largest Church is a Colossal 1980s Replica. In: Messy Nessy Chic. January 2, 2014, Retrieved July 11, 2020 (American English).
  5. ↑ Home. Retrieved July 11, 2020 .
  6. ^ Richard Moncrieff: Political opposition in the Ivory Coast: Problems and perspectives. (PDF) 1998, accessed on September 10, 2015 (English).
  7. ↑ Jo-Ansie van Wyk: Political Leaders in Africa: Presidents, Patrons or Profiteers? (PDF) In: Occasional Paper Series: Volume 2, Number 1. 2007, accessed on September 10, 2015 (English).
  8. ^ Douglas Yates: Power, Accumulation and Violence in Françafrique. October 21, 2009, accessed September 10, 2015 .

Coordinates: 6 ° 48 ′ 40 "  N , 5 ° 17 ′ 47"  W.