Cathedrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille
This neo Gothic cathedral took almost a century and a half to finish, and its west front is like no other, a thin screen of translucent marble that glows amber from within at dusk. It is dedicated to Our Lady of the Treille, a medieval statue of the Virgin long credited with miracles.
Über diesen Ort
The story of Notre Dame de la Treille is one of ambition, interruption and bold reinvention. The foundation stone was laid in 1854 after an international competition, with the architect Charles Leroy designing a soaring neo Gothic church meant to recall the cathedrals of the thirteenth century. Money ran short again and again, and for more than a hundred years the building stood unfinished, its west end closed off by a plain brick wall. Only in the 1990s was the problem solved in a daring way. The architect Pierre Louis Carlier and the Irish engineer Peter Rice, famous for the Sydney Opera House and the Centre Pompidou, designed a facade of thin white Carrara marble, cut so fine that light passes through it. Completed in 1999, it turns the whole front of the cathedral into a glowing lantern at nightfall, crowned by a modern rose window by the painter Ladislas Kijno.
Wissenswertes
- 1854 year — The year the cathedral's foundation stone was laid
- 1999 year — The year the modern translucent marble west front was completed
- 145 years — The span from the foundation stone to the finished facade
📍 Place Gilleson, 59800, Lille