Église Saint-Pierre d'Yvetot, Church building in Yvetot, France

Église Saint-Pierre d'Yvetot is a circular-plan church 40 metres in diameter and 20 metres high, built 1949–1956 by architects Pierre Chirol, Robert Flavigny and Yves Marchand. Its curving walls alternate pinkish-red panels with tall narrow dark windows, and a carved stone panel with a central standing figure projects forward above an inscription panel. A slender campanile of the same pinkish-red material, topped by a cross, stands to the right.

The church was built in 1956 and represents post-war religious architecture in France following the destruction of the original building. This reconstruction project marked a new beginning for the community under the guidance of three architects.

Saint Peter has been the parish patron at Yvetot for over a thousand years, and the 1,046 m² window by Max Ingrand shows him beside Christ and the apostles. Its large section is devoted to Norman saints of the Rouen diocese: Valery, Saëns, Ouen, Philibert and Wandrille, with bishops of Rouen such as Romain, shown strangling the gargoyle that ravaged the city.

The church stands on a circular plan 40 m in diameter and 20 m high, so visitors enter and move around a single open room rather than a nave. The separate campanile, added after the 1956 completion and fitted with bells in late October 1963, stands beside the main body. Look for the carved stone panel and its French inscription above the entrance.

The 1,046 m² glazing by Max Ingrand is described as the largest contemporary stained-glass ensemble in Europe. Its green, gold and blue glass depicts saints alongside a large section devoted to figures of the Rouen diocese, among them Saint Romain strangling the gargoyle of Rouen.