For a long time, within this sacred place, many faithful have devoted themselves to prayer to celebrate the rise of Christ or to seek to elevate their souls. But in a few months, new visitors to the Sainte-Rita church, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, will be embarking on a climb of a completely different kind.
The Climbing District group is preparing to inaugurate there, on the eve of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games… a climbing gym. This will be the second site that the group will open within a former church in the capital. “It’s the company’s DNA to develop a community in atypical places,” Henri d’Anterroches and Antoine Paulhac, the founders of Climbing District, recently told Le Parisien.
Read alsoNo parking or offices: in Paris, the emblematic Sainte-Rita church transformed into… a climbing gym
A reconversion which is not to everyone's taste for this church once dedicated to the patroness of desperate causes. “Man no longer seeking to ascend towards God, but to reach heaven by the sole strength of his arms, this forced and undergone reconversion of the church reveals the abandonment of God of a society entirely turned towards itself “, deplores the Catholic blog “Christian Tribune”.
The faithful will, however, have to make up their minds. In Paris, between the vocations crisis and the disaffection of places of worship, many religious buildings are now enjoying a second life. How many of the 139 churches listed in the capital are there, 85 of which belong to the City? Obtaining a precise figure is wishful thinking, because desecrated or disused places are often the property of various religious communities. Like the Sainte-Rita church, which was long owned by the Gallican Church, before being briefly occupied by a traditionalist Catholic association.
When contacted, the diocese of Paris did not provide us with other examples of churches converted in this way. And according to the Observatory of Religious Heritage, only the old chapel of the Immaculate Conception (12th century) – the first to have been transformed into a climbing gym – would thus have been diverted from its “destination” among places of worship. of the Catholic Church in the capital.
A temple of electro in an old church
A misleading figure. Because, far from organs and liturgical chants, it is to the sound of electro evenings that the Parisian collective Raw soon intends to make its faithful dance in an old church in the north of Paris. According to the collective, the Haven will be able to accommodate up to 500 techno music fans, every Saturday from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. In its invitation card to the “private and intimate” preview of its club, in mid-March, the Parisian collective praised the “splendor” of a space with “unique” potential.
The new temple of electro nights will not be the first to take over a former place of worship in the capital. Already in 1978, the Chapelle des Lombards took up residence in Les Halles (Ist) in a 13th century Gothic chapel. The club has since settled in the Bastille district.
“Large volumes difficult to find in Paris”
The old Parisian chapels and churches have also become very popular places for event agencies. They found the dream setting – and spacious – to offer film shooting, corporate evening, rally or cocktail dinner…
Several churches are offered as film sets by specialized agencies. This is the case of the Sainte-Rita church, used as a setting before soon being transformed into a climbing gym.
In its catalog of “places”, the agency The Place to See makes available this “empty and disused church” in the heart of the Montparnasse district. “In its original state”, the building has a large main nave in which only the altar remains, without forgetting the mezzanine upstairs with an old organ. The church regularly hosts music festivals and exhibitions and also recently served as the setting for the filming of the film “L'Amour, c'est surcoté”, directed by Mourad Winter, soon to be released in theaters.
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A decor that is still rare in the catalog of this Parisian location agency. “Our goal is to have very different properties for all types of scenarios,” underlines Arthur Gambien, the company’s general manager. For us, it is very interesting to have a deconsecrated church in the catalog, because this allows productions to work more freely without the right of scrutiny from the institution. Today, it is a property which remains quite rare but which is very interesting, both for the atypical side of the place and the practical side. These are large volumes that are difficult to find in Paris. »
Most often, churches listed in agency catalogs only remain there for a specific period of time, before a more lasting project is carried out. This is the case, for example, of the Sainte-Rita church, which, before being taken over by the Climbing District group, was part of the settings proposed by The Place to See.
Churches are also reconverting, sometimes, to the high end. On the very opulent Avenue George-V, a stone's throw from the Champs-Élysées, the American Cathedral offers its “exceptional surface area” for all kinds of privatizations “in an unparalleled architectural setting”. The building, which was the first American Episcopalian church built outside the United States, will host a Seattle orchestra this Wednesday, April 10 for a free concert.
Soon a solidarity grocery store in the former Saint-Lazare chapel?
Event agencies are not the only ones to have taken possession of converted churches. On the side of the old Saint-Lazare chapel (10th century), now deconsecrated, it is an association which undertook to rehabilitate it as part of the redevelopment of the Alban-Satragne district and the former Saint-Lazare enclosure. The redevelopment project for this old chapel was launched as part of the 2016 participatory budget, by the social center Le Pari's des Faubourgs.
“Its restructuring will open up new perspectives for this building”, wants to believe the City, which wants to see “a co-managed associative space established there, at the same time multi-purpose room, solidarity grocery store and associative café”. A project that has not seen the light of day at this stage.