L’église du Sacré Coeur d’Alger, une oeuvre religieuse à l’épreuve de la modernité architecturale des années 50.

Abstract

The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Algiers is an essential work of the 50s. Like a nuclear power plant, this emblematic building of modern architecture in Algiers, fits daringly into an eclectic fabric of the nineteenth century. The Church of the Sacred Heart is a work that is built in a context rich in debates and deals with the revolution that would end the filiation to the historicist architecture of the nineteenth century. This affects both general architectural theories such as christian religious architecture in the midst of crisis of renewal of sacred art. During the 1950s, it was at its peak and clearly defined new principles of church architecture by introducing various changes that the Second Vatican Council brought in 1965. Designed by Paul Herbé and Jean Le Couteur, assisted of the famous engineers Bernard Laffaille and René Sarger, the Sacré Coeur church is a conceptual contribution to the debates in force at the time and allows architects to position themselves a position the city of Algiers in relation to the contributions of that time. Indeed, it embodies an unconditional singularity, by the resumption of the new principles of the Brutalist trend of the International Style freshly appeared in France and Great Britain. This new architecture in the Algerian landscape, allows to engage the modern architecture of Algiers in an unprecedented perspective on the eve of Algerian independence.