Ronchamp Chapel

Notre-Dame du Haut was finished in 1955 on a hill where a pilgrimage chapel had stood for centuries until it was destroyed in 1944. Le Corbusier, who had spent his career on rectilinear buildings, produced something else entirely: thick white curving walls, a heavy dark roof shaped like a shell or a wing, and a deliberate gap between wall and roof so the concrete canopy appears to hover on a line of daylight. The south wall is pierced by deep splayed openings of different sizes with coloured glass, throwing shafts of colour inside. It is part of the UNESCO listing of Le Corbusier's work made in 2016.

Highlights

• The floating roof - a dark shell separated from the walls by a light gap.
• The pierced south wall - deep splayed windows in coloured glass.
• The curved white mass - sculptural concrete walls seen from every angle.
• The Renzo Piano additions - a later monastery and gatehouse set into the slope.

When to go

April to October for the best light through the south wall; the site opens year-round with shorter winter hours. Morning and late afternoon give the strongest colour shafts inside.

What to expect

It is a working place of worship and can close for services. The hill involves a walk up from the car park. Photography inside is restricted at times.

Nearby

Belfort lies east; Besancon is southwest.