Holy Trinity

The façade of the house at 103 rue d'Amiens has details that reveal the different ‘lives’ that this building has had over the centuries. From the entrance porch to the junction of rue Sainte-Claire and rue d'Amiens, five centuries of history are revealed: Starting with the two dates next to the porch, evoking the time of the Trinitaires convent (17th century), then the neo-Gothic architecture of the current entrance dating from the time of the Benedictine nuns (19th century), the shell marks and the role of the building during the First World War - then used as the Ambulance (temporary hospital) of the Blessed Sacrament - finally the period of reconstruction and its enlargement for the arrival of seminarians from 1919. Since the early 2000s, the building, now the Maison diocésaine Saint-Vaast, has housed the administrative services of the bishopric, as well as a hotel-restaurant for church and non-church groups. 

Inside, the former neo-Gothic church dating from 1846 - built by architect Alexandre Grigny (a disciple of Viollet-le-Duc) - was destroyed during the 1914-1915 bombardments and was replaced by the neo-Romanesque chapel built between 1926 and 1930 by architect Pierre-Marie Clavier. It also houses a Way of the Cross, the work of the artist Lucien Jonas (1880-1947), a native of Anzin in the Nord département who was appointed official painter to the Navy (military painter) during the First World War. The reconstruction also allowed for the creation of a crypt of the same dimensions as the chapel, located just below, where altars for celebrations are still found today, allowing seminarians to learn how to say mass.

You can also discover details of the architecture and furnishings of the building thanks to the work carried out by the ‘Jeunes Organistes’ association, which - during the winter of 2020 - was able to record a number of songs in the chapel (click here).

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)