Notre-Dame du Valentin, Minor basilica in central Lausanne, Switzerland.
Notre-Dame du Valentin is a neoclassical basilica with a raised central nave and side aisles, built on the Rue du Valentin. Its 38-meter concrete bell tower, monumental staircase and colonnade date from the 1931–1934 renovation by Fernand Dumas, which also added a bay and a new facade.
Catholic worship was banned in Lausanne after the Reformation of 1536 and only legalized again in 1810. A first church begun on Avenue de l'Université collapsed with the ground and was demolished. The present building was erected at Rue du Valentin 3 in 1832–1835 to plans by Henri Perregaux and consecrated on 31 May 1835.
The church keeps the name of its district, Valentin. Its five bells, cast in 1947 by H. Rüetschi of Aarau and hung the following year, carry reliefs: one shows Notre-Dame de Lausanne, the others the patron saints of Lausanne's pre-Reformation parishes — Francis of Assisi, Lawrence, Peter, Roch and Francis de Sales.
The main entrance is on Rue du Valentin 3, in the city-centre quarter. A monumental staircase links the forecourt to the Place de la Riponne, and the M2 metro station Riponne-M.Béjart sits at the top of it. The interior fresco restoration ran until 2025, so some areas may be screened off.
Gino Severini's 1934 apse fresco shows Mary in a green mantle holding the Christ Child at its centre, with the Annunciation on the right and the Coronation of the Virgin on the left. Severini, a signatory of the 1910 Futurist manifesto, worked here with architect Fernand Dumas, who had already called on him for other churches.
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