Église du Bon-Pasteur de Paris, Catholic church in 11th arrondissement, Paris, France
The Église du Bon-Pasteur is a church with modern design located on Rue de Charonne in the 11th arrondissement with space for about 600 worshippers. The interior is spacious and contemporary, arranged to provide worshippers with a functional setting for prayer and community gatherings.
Flemish Belgian workers settled near Rue de Charonne after the Faubourg Saint-Antoine lost its furniture craftsmen following the 1871 Commune. Their priests bought land between Avenue Philippe-Auguste and Boulevard de Charonne, where a neo-Gothic brick church by Belgians Arthur Verhaegen and Jean-Baptiste Bethune was built in 1873. Stones fell from its vault in the 1960s, and the church was replaced by architect Bernard Casnin's 126-unit housing scheme with a new church below street level.
Known for decades as the "church of the Flemings", it was the base of a Flemish mission that ran theatre rooms and a patronage for Belgian woodworkers alongside Masses and processions. The bronze and copper fittings were made by the St Eloi copperworks of Roubaix, which opened a Paris branch for the job.
The church holds regular services and welcomes visitors, with information available online about schedules and activities. Located on Rue de Charonne, it is easy to reach by public transportation and sits in an active urban neighborhood.
The 1873 brick church was nicknamed "the Flemings' church" and anchored a Flemish mission that ran theatre and social activities for Belgian workers. After 1905 it stayed in the hands of the Ghent bishopric, and only in 1926 was it handed to the Paris archdiocese, which entrusted it to the Fils de la Charité.
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