Resurrection Cathedral

Évry Cathedral (French:Cathédrale de la Résurrection d'Évry; "Évry Cathedral of the Resurrection") is a Roman Catholic church located in the new town of Évry (Essonne), France. The cathedral was designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta. It opened in 1995, and was consecrated and dedicated to Saint Corbinian in 1996.

Description

The Diocese of Corbeil, also known as Corbeil-Essonnes, was created in 1966, and the parish church of Saint-Spire was elevated to the status of the bishop's seat as Corbeil Cathedral, but neither it nor any other existing church was suitable in size and location, and the bishop's offices were in a converted primary school. Évry was the natural centre of the area and population of the new diocese and was accordingly chosen as the episcopal centre, but lacked a suitable significant structure.

Twelve years later, in 1988, the diocese was renamed the Diocese of Évry–Corbeil-Essonnes and Évry Cathedral was commissioned from the Swiss architect Mario Botta. Initial studies were conceived the same year, and groundbreaking took place in the spring of 1991. He designed a strikingly contemporary cylindrical concrete tower, 34.5 metres (113 ft) high, faced with 840,000 handmade red bricks crowned by a ring of trees around the edge of the roof. The altar was created from a single piece of white Carrara marble. Construction was funded by contributions from more than 300,000 donors, a national fund created between the two World Wars for the reconstruction of religious structures destroyed in the Paris region, a major contribution from the Diocese of Munich, Germany, and public agencies in the Île-de-France region.

The building is the only completely new, purpose-built cathedral constructed in France in the 20th century. As seat of the diocese, it has now superseded Corbeil Cathedral.

Évry Cathedral opened its doors to the public on 11 April 1995, was dedicated on Easter 1996, and was visited by Pope John-Paul II on 22 August 1997. Self-directed tours of the cathedral with audioguides and group tours are available daily, including Sunday.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Évry Cathedral" and modified on 23 July 2019 under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.