Discovering Le Corbusier #1: The march to Ronchamp

Deovrat Dwivedi

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6 min readAug 31, 2021

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Photographic documentation of the architectural masterpiece Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut

A train from Luzern to Belfort and then a single coup train to Ronchamp. A beautiful evening spent in the streets of Belfort, France dedicated to a day exploring the architectural wonders of Europe.

A signpost opposite to the Church of Our Lady of the Netherlands in the small quaint town of Ronchamp marks the way to Corbusier’s ingenious creation Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut AKA The Ronchamp Chapel.

The genesis

I defy a visitor to give, offhand, the dimensions of the different parts of the building

Architect Le Corbusier on the Ronchamp Chapel

Le Corbusier on his architectural design work process while conceptualizing his masterpiece. (Source: text and sketches for Ronchamp, by Jean Petit 1965 )

The very first concept sketches of the chapel building by Le Corbusier after mentally incubating the idea for over six months. Dated 1951.

Le Corbusier on the Ronchamp Chapel site on top of the hill overlooking the four horizons. (Source: text and sketches for Ronchamp, by Jean Petit 1965 )

Site Sketch of remains of the old chapel by Le Corbusier (Source: text and sketches for Ronchamp, by Jean Petit 1965 )

The first glimpse of the chapel after the march up the hill

Scale model of the Ronchamp Chapel and the extension buildings in Visitor’s Center of Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut

The Four Elevations

South Elevation. The massive south wall is 3 m wide at the base and was made of debris from the old chapel, which was “blasted by shellfire” during World War II.

West Elevation. Featuring the brutalist gargoyle: A sculpture in roughcast concrete that collects water from the entire span of the shell roof.

North Elevation shows the opposite entrance to the chapel and brings Corbusier's color palette on the exterior at only one place in the white serene mass.

East Elevation. The human-scaled cross at the Altar, the witness, the pulpit, and Mother Marie.

The Entrance to the chapel

The South entrance to the chapel. The door is painted on both sides, a piece of art by Le Corbusier in his cubist style.

Technical sketches

The famous concrete shell roof

The Human Scale Cross

Corbusier re-defined the proportions of the cross, using the original dimensions, and made it to human scale.

The brutalist gargoyle

Roughcast concrete gargoyles the North Facade

The Bell Towers

The Bible sitting open inside one of the light towers at the Ronchamp Chapel

Music and the Space

Corbusier on the voice of Ronchamp and his idea of playing music at the chapel at all times.

The Interior Space

The interior…” sculpture in the round” (hollow”; the four walls, the ceiling, the floor, all are mobilized in a charming simplicity.

The interior space comprises of “Curved Volumes governed by rectilinear generators” as described by the architect himself

Featuring the old couple who happened to be the only other visitors on the day I visited the chapel and unknowingly acted scale figures in my pictures.

The famous fenestration wall

The Honest Concrete Texture

Your Excellency, I hand over to you this chapel built of honest concrete, shaped perhaps with temerity, certainly with courage, hoping that it will find in you and those who will climb this hill an echo of wat all of us have put into it.

Le Corbusier in the address to the Archbishop at the dedication of the chapel.

Shuttering texture on concrete case elements ( pulpit, gargoyles, and staircase ) shows the architects attention to construction and execution detail

A plastic roughcast concrete texture making it the property of mass and showing the construction constraints of building on an isolated hill with limited machinery and workforce becomes a very element of the mass.

The Corbusier Colour Palette

The Horizon

The eastern horizon shows how subtly Architect Renzo Piano has made his extension building for the chapel disappear as a homage to the master’s work

The Visitors Center of the chapel was done by Ar Renzo Piano in 2000 as an extension to the chapel. It modestly hides under the earth never visible from the chapel.

‘Foustez-Moi le camp” in French translates in English to “Get the hell out of here”

5th February 2017, 18 30 Hrs, Ronchamp, France

Thanks for reading!

All text and sketch snippets are from the book called “text and sketches for ronchamp Le Corbusier” and all copyrights remain with the publishers. This blog is only written with an intention of self-reflection and could be used for academic purposes for all those interested. I bought this beautiful book at the visitors center of Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut. Perhaps the Best € 9 ever spent. It's a fun little book you can check out at https://www.amazon.com/Texts-sketches-Ronchamp-Corbusier/dp/B0007BPW7S