Église Saint-Joseph

Perret's soaring concrete tower with 12,768 stained glass panels

Auguste Perret's masterwork and the emotional centrepiece of the rebuilt city. The octagonal tower rises 107 metres and is sheathed in 12,768 pieces of coloured glass — amber, blue, red, and green — that flood the interior with shifting light at any hour of the day. There are no aisles and no side chapels; the entire congregation faces the lantern tower in one undivided space. Walk in on a sunny morning and the effect is breathtaking.

The church was completed in 1957 as a memorial to the 5,000 Le Havre residents killed in the 1944 bombing. Perret, already in his 70s, considered it the summation of his life's work.

Address: Rue Louis Brindeau, Le Havre. Open daily.

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A story
Perret was 72 years old when he began designing this church and considered it the culmination of his life's work in reinforced concrete. He is buried inside the building he designed. The 12,768 pieces of coloured glass were selected so that no two adjacent pieces are the same colour — a constraint Perret imposed on the glass artist Marguerite Huré, who spent three years working on the commission.

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