Cathedral Notre-Dame-de-l’Assumption of Port-au-Prince-Wikipedia
The Notre-Dame-de-l’Assumption cathedral is the cathedral church of the Catholic archdiocese of Port-au-Prince, in Haiti. Consecrated the , after about ten years of work, it was destroyed during the earthquake of .
Motivation [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The need to build a new building in the so -called “stewardship” district was felt in the late 1870s. Indeed, a petition circulated in 1878 requesting the construction of a cathedral worthy of the name, in Replacement of the building built in wood in 1770, along rue Docteur-Aubry, which looked more like a vast hangar covered with slates and with a modest bell tower. For lack of maintenance as well as because of the defective techniques used for the enlargement of 1849, this church deteriorated rapidly, leading to the public closure in the early 1980s. A single sprained this rule was made, in 1983, During the ceremony ordered by Jean-Claude Duvalier for the return of the remains of Toussaint Louverture. The old cathedral was completely destroyed during the events following the attempted coup of Roger Lafontant, the [ first ] .
During a trip to France he was from, the archbishop of the time, M gr Alexis Guilloux (born in Ploermel in 1819 and died in 1885), contacted the Nantes architect René Michel Menard (1843-1895) to whom he entrusted the preparation of the plan and the study of the foundations. The latter develops the diagram of a building 80 meters long by 45 wide, to which it joins a fairly high estimated quote.
Construction [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
Not put off by the requested sum, the clergy begins the construction work of the cathedral . The death of Monsignor Guilloux a year later, will stop the site until 1899, the year during which the new archbishop, M gr Giulio Tonti, blesses the North Tower.
But the site is again suspended, especially for lack of credit. It will take the determination of the new archbishop M gr Julien Conan (1903 – 1930), for the work to resume and that the building is finally completed. He contacted a Belgian architectural firm, the Perraud and Dumas company specializing in the construction of religious buildings. The contract has passed the stipulating that, for $ 300,000 (paid by 5 annual payments of $ 60,000 each) the building was to take ‘ All monolithic characteristics, that is to say having all the characters of a monument cut in a career of stones of the most beautiful essences and without solution of continuity » . However, this arrangement did not prevent from opting for a new material capable of resisting seismic disturbances, and unprecedented in Haiti, reinforced concrete. The contract also specified the dimensions that the building should take:
- Interior length: 81 m ;
- Facade width: 49 m ;
- height under vault at the nave: 24 m ;
- Height to transept: 26 m .
In addition to the reinforced concrete or the artificial stone used for walls, towers, arcs and vaults, we had to use stucco for the facade, columns, as well as the framing of doors and windows, while the metal frame was to be covered with slates or breakdowns (or “Flemish breakdown”). Finally, according to this contract, the work should not last more than 30 months, but this period will not be respected despite the formal formalians made to the engineer Paul Perraud, mandated by Maison Perraud and Dumas to supervise the work.
The five nave spans initially planned are finally reduced to three by Haitian architects Léon Mathon and Louis Roy charged by M gr Conan, then approved by the government to direct and control the work which finally resumed at the beginning of 1905.
In June 1906 the three -fifths of masonry were completed, at the end of 1907 the facade was virtually finished. The establishment of the reinforced concrete vault of the transept and the choir, as well as the installation of the slate cover occupied all year 1908 and a part of 1909.
In April 1910, the bell tower had its four bells weighing a total of 15,000 pounds and the stained glass windows began to be posed a few months later.
Finally, the , the cathedral, dedicated to Notre-Dame de l’Assomption will be devoted after ten years of work. It will take fourteen additional years to celebrate the The “solemn consecration” after the installation in 1921 of a new chime of four bells of a total of 4,763 kg (Made with the metal of the old posed 10 previously), of a cavilé-clé-coll organ installed two years later, as well as a marble and bronze altar.
Destruction and degradation [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The cathedral in repair since 1968, will be completely destroyed by the earthquake of January 12, 2010, which notably led to the death of the holder archbishop M gr Joseph Miot, whose body will be found the day after the disaster in the rubble of the archbishopric.
Since then, the ruins of the building have been the subject of various degradations and stains. Despite the installation of a palisade, theft of materials were committed: thus, the wooden doors and other decorations were carried away [ 2 ] , while the walls and pillars are destroyed in order to recover the metal structures that resell for a few dollars from the organized networks of traffickers [ 3 ] . Even the bells are the subject of lusts [ 4 ] . One of them who threatened to fall from the bell tower, was removed by the Brazilian blue helmets of the minustah and placed in a safe place [ 3 ] .
The Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince, in collaboration with the magazine Faith & Form and the Institute for the safeguard of the national heritage (ISPAN), an organization of the Haitian government, was launched in 2012 an architectural competition allowing architects of the architects world to present their projects for the construction of a new cathedral which can only intervene in ten years [ 5 ] .
The Puerto Rican architect Segundo Cardona associated with six colleagues won the competition. It proposes to integrate the facade of the old building framed by two new concrete towers, while the old nave whose pillars will be kept will be transformed into a covered courtyard. The religious ceremonies will take place at the level of the current transept under a large room surmounted by a dome in the center of which the altar will be, around which the 1,200 faithful will be placed (capacity which can be increased to 600 additional people thanks using the courtyard covered). The interior of the new cathedral will be marked by the creative and abundant use of natural light, because the supply of electricity in Port-au-Prince is intermittent and costly [ 6 ] , [ 7 ] .
Bibliography [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
- Former Cathedral of Port-au-Prince , ISPAN, ICOMOS-HAITI, French Institute of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, 1991, 210 p. (Special number of Conjunction. Franco-Haitian review , n O 188-189, 1991)
- Georges Corvington, The cathedral of Port-au-Prince-History of a construction , Henri Deschamps, Port-au-Prince, 1978
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External link [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
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