Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Bourg-en-Bresse, Catholic basilica in Bourg-en-Bresse, France.
The Basilique du Sacré-Cœur is a Neo-Romanesque church with Neo-Byzantine elements, 57 metres long and 24 metres wide, with a nave rising 8.72 metres. Its facade has a 5-metre rose window above a portal whose tympanum carries a gold-ground mosaic of Christ in a white tunic, arms open, showing his Sacred Heart. The two 50-metre reinforced-concrete spires were added only in 1952-1953.
A provisional chapel by architect Claude Royer opened in 1883 as the north wing of the future church. The parish was erected in 1910 by Bishop Manier, when the Bel-Air district had five thousand inhabitants, and the first stone was laid in 1911, the choir being built first. The church was blessed on 14 June 1942 under the Occupation by Bishop Maisonobe and consecrated on 6 July 1948 by Bishop Dubourg.
The white marble high altar, decorated with small statues, dates from 1825 and came from the former grand séminaire of Belley. The stained glass of the ateliers Mauméjean, made in 1935-1939, fills the interior with strong light. A Crucifixion by the Lyonnais painter Jean Scohy (1824-1897) hangs inside, alongside a fresco by Luc Barbier and François Croizat.
The church stands in the Bel-Air district by the station, not in the old centre. The facade faces the street, with the main portal at ground level between the two towers; the rose window and mosaic tympanum are best seen from the pavement opposite. It remains an active parish, now served by the Oblates of Saint Vincent de Paul.
The rose window is 5 metres across, and the mosaic is not in it but on the tympanum below: Christ in a white tunic, arms open, showing his Sacred Heart on a gold background. The 50-metre reinforced-concrete spires were added only in 1952-1953, paid for by a legacy.
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