Saint-Christophe-de-Javel, Paris

The church was built in the neighborhood of Javel in the 15th arrondissement, an area which, beginning in the 1860, had seen the construction of many chemical and metallurgical factories, including factories which produced Eau de Javel, a variety of bleach, which gave it's name to the neighborhood. After the First World War, the dominant industry became construction of transport, including locomotives, wagons and especially automobiles, including a large new factory for Citroen. The local church could not accommodate the rapid growth of the population. A project for a much larger church was launched, It was named for Saint Christopher the patron saint of automobilists and other voyagers.[2]

The design was inspired by the Gothic architecture of the 13th century. The architect, Charles-Henri Besnard (1881-1946} was an admirer of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, who had carried out the creative restroration of a series of Gothic cathedrals from that period. Besmard went one step further than Viollet-le-Duc. Rather than using masonry with an iron framework for the church, he went one step further, building with reinforced concrete. His ambition, he declared, was to create the kind of church that the 13th century architects would have buit if they had possessed reenforced concrete.[3]

Following Besnard's method, the elaborate columns and grills and other architectural elements of the church were prefabricated, molded of cement,then delivered to the construction site. This way, making the prefabricated architectural elements of the church could continue through the winter, when traditional construction sites closed down. However, in the end, this method of construction proved not to be economical. The additional cost of hoisting and installing all the delicate prefabricated pieces turned out to be greater than traditional construction on the site.[4]

In 1975 The church was protected as an historic monument, as part of a nationwide effort to preserve notable Parisian architecture from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The exterior of the church is made of brick and concrete. The decoration over the portal is extremely elaborate, with molded concrete sculptural screens depicting crosses, the crown of thorns, fleurs-de-lis, and other Biblical motifs and messages.

Thn central element of the facade, high above the portal, is a concrete statue of Saint Christopher holding the infant Christ. The statue is by Pierre Vigoureu].The decoration of the exterior walls also includes tw fresco paintings on cement depicting Saint Christopher protecting voyagers (left) and helping the driver at the wheel of an automobile (right), since the neighborhood was the home of the major automobile factories. The frescoes were painted by Henri-Marcel Magne (1877-1944).

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  Detail of tower, with frescos painted on cement.
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  The portal, below a statue of Saint Christopher and the Christ child.
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  The doorway

The interior of the church, like the exteriors, uses 19th century materials and construction techniques to simulate the effect of the Gothic churches of the 13th century. The tall, slender columns of the arcades that flank the nave appear to be of iron, but, like the other structural features, are made of molded concrete.

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  The nave looking toward the choir
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  The choir
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  The nave, looking toward the portal, with the organ above it on the tribune

The main organ of the church is located in the tribune over the portal to the nave. The instrument was built by the Schwenkedel firm in 1972. Behind the organ the wall is filled with. a fresco of a choir of angels, attributed to Henri-Marcel Magne.[7]

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  The organ in the tribune of the nave, in front of a painting of a choir of angels

• Website of the church (in French)
• Patrimoine-histoire.fr article on the history and art of the church (in French)
• fr:Église Saint-Christophe-de-JavelArticle on the church in the French Wikipedia (in French)