Notre-Dame (Moulins)

Notre-Dame chapel

South transept

The Chapel of Our Lady in Moulins , the capital of the department Allier in the French region of Auvergne Rhône-Alpes , was the end of the 19th century in the style of Romanesque Revival built. The building on Rue du Lycée originally served as the chapel of a girls' boarding school , where Coco Chanel also spent two years from 1900.

history

Already at the beginning of the 17th century, a branch of the Augustinian women choir ( Chanoinesses de Saint-Augustin de la Congrégation Notre-Dame ) was established in Moulins , which was founded by Alix Le Clerc and Pierre Fourier in 1597 in Lorraine and which should devote to the education of girls.

At the end of the 19th century, the women choir had a new chapel built according to plans by the architect Amable Barnier, the completion of which was delayed by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. In 1875 were in the stained glass workshop of Louis-Victor Gesta in Toulouse , the stained glass windows commissioned. In 1876 the chapel was consecrated by Pierre Simon de Dreux-Brézé , Bishop of Moulins .

The boarding school was closed in the 1970s, and the building now houses a Red Cross training center. A portal on the Rue du Lycée, decorated with carvings and the inscription “Pensionnat de Notre-Dame”, still reminds of the former educational institution. The chapel was sold to the Hôtel de Paris and, after extensive restoration, is used by them as an event and seminar room. In the crypt of the chapel was from 2012 Wellness range furnished.

architecture

Pillar under the gallery

Capitals

The west facade is broken through by a rose window and six high arched windows and crowned by a small bell gable.

The interior consists of a single-nave nave , which is divided into three bays , a transept, the southern arm of which is more pronounced than the northern, and a choir with five-eighth end and ambulatory . The nave is covered by a barrel vault with strong belt arches , which are supported by half-columns with Corinthian- inspired capitals . At the sides, arched arcades , which rest on twelve pillars with pillars, open to form side aisles covered with transverse barrels. A gallery is built in to the west and is supported by columns.

Interior, looking west
Choir
South transept

Leaded glass window

Angels with banners

Angels with banners are depicted on the leaded glass windows of the nave , on which the invocations of Mary of the Lauretanian Litany ("MATER ADMIRABILIS", "ETERNAE MATER", "MATER DIVINAE GRATIAE", "MATER CHRISTI", "MATER INTEMERATA", " MATER PURISSIMA "," MATER CASTISSIMA "," MATER INVIOLATA "," SANCTA MARIA "," MATER SALVATORIS "," MATER CREATORIS "," SANCTA DEI GENITRIX ") are to be read.

Saint Anne , Saint Joseph and Saint Francis de Sales are depicted on the three large windows of the north transept . On the smaller lower panes you can see the instruction of Mary, the Holy Family and Francis de Sales giving alms to a woman . The windows of the south transept depict the two founders of the order, Alix Le Clerc and Pierre Fourier, as well as St. Philomena , St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica , the Apostle Peter and St. Euphrasia of Constantinople.

Saint Anna
Saint Joseph
Francis de Sales

The central choir window is dedicated to the representation of the Heart of Jesus . On the side windows the Annunciation, the birth of Christ, the presentation of Jesus in the temple and the Assumption of Mary are depicted. The lower scenes depict the passage to the Temple of Mary, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the apparition of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the nun Margareta Maria Alacoque . Below the presentation of Jesus in the temple you can see a bouquet of white lilies with two doves and below the Assumption of Mary an empty tomb from which flowers grow. The two side windows bear the signature of the glass painter Louis-Victor Gesta.