Chapelle Corneille, Concert hall and chapel in Rouen, France
The Chapelle Corneille is a former place of worship in Rouen that now serves as a modern concert hall and performance venue. Inside, around 600 seats combine flamboyant architectural features with technical facilities for musical and theatrical events.
The building was originally constructed as the Church of Saint-Louis and received historical monument status in 1910. Over the course of the 20th century, it was gradually transformed into a cultural space until it became the concert hall we see today.
The name Corneille comes from the adjoining Lycée Pierre Corneille, the former Jesuit college the church was built to serve; the playwright himself has no link to the building. Since 2016 it has housed a 600-seat auditorium run by the Opéra de Rouen-Normandie, hosting concerts all year, including the Festival d'octobre.
The chapel stands on Rue Bourg-l'Abbé, just south of the Lycée Corneille, reached from the street by a stone step and entrance porch finished in 1731. The building is classified as a monument historique, and since 2016 it has operated as a 600-seat auditorium run by the Opéra de Rouen-Normandie, so it opens for performances rather than as a church to visit.
The church is oriented on a north–south axis rather than the usual east–west, and its single nave runs 52 metres, making it Rouen's third-largest church after the cathedral and Saint-Ouen. Four tribunes above the transept chapels could serve polychoral works such as Marc-Antoine Charpentier's four-choir masses.
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