Church Sainte Famille

This attractive copper-clad building was constructed in 2004 in a contemporary style, featuring a monumental dome and stonework by the compagnons de devoir apprentices. The beautiful mosaics on its entrance door and tympanum are the work of Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, an artist whose masterpieces can also be admired at Lourdes, Fatima and San Giovanni Rotondo.
Entering the church through a huge narthex, visitors are immediately struck by the imposing dimensions of its egg-shaped dome rising 19 m above them and measuring 18 m long by 26 m wide. The dome rests on four ten-metre high pillars of reinforced concrete, which weigh 50 tonnes each.
Each pillar is crowned with capitals of Chandoré stone sculpted with symbols representing the four evangelists: St Matthew is shown in human form, while the lion stands for St Mark, a bull symbolises St Luke and St John is represented by an eagle. As well as a Tavel stone baptismal font for children, made up of a basin resting on a cross-shaped base that twists a quarter of a turn, the church – unusually – contains a baptismal pool for adults, to the left of the altar.

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