Musique et poésie des Juifs en Italie à la Renaissance Music and ...

The recording locationThe church of Sainte Thérèse, Vasperviller (Moselle)It rises like a sentinel, overhanging the road thatleads from Sarrebourg to Saint-Quirin. At first glanceit may seem like no more than a massive block, surmountedby a bell tower with arcaded openings at itstop; hence the overall grouping initially suggests similarstructures at Ronchamp and L’Arbresle. Doubtless amore careful scrutiny is required to perceive the formalpolyphony brought into play here, which in fact connectsfour principal volumes with the same number ofintermediate volumes: when contemplated attentively,they induce a real sense of visual plenitude. Better still,one should take the time to walk up the steep littlepath, scarcely a hundred metres long, and enter thissanctuary, there to realise that one is at the heart ofone of the masterpieces of sacred art built in the secondhalf of the twentieth century. For such is the church ofSainte Thérèse at Vasperviller, designed by the architectCarl Litzenburger.It was during the Second World War, among membersof the village’s population expelled to the south ofFrance, that the idea arose of building a church on theirreturn home; something like a medieval vow. A familydonated land for the purpose as soon as the exilesreturned, and a prefabricated military shed was boughtand erected there to serve as a place of worship. But by1967 it was threatening to fall in ruins, and somethingwas needed to replace it. Some people opted for restoration,for maintaining a small barn church devoid ofprestige and artistry. Others, who were in the minority,thought that what was required was a new edifice oflasting value. Thus an association was founded for thepurpose of building the church, and Carl Litzenburgerwas given responsibility for designing it. The final planswere ready in 1967. But those in charge of the projectwere not yet home and dry. They were faced with51enormous difficulties on the part of the regulatory administration,the ecclesiastical authorities, and a certainnumber of inhabitants. A resolute, iron-willed teamwas needed to surmount all these obstacles. It was onlythanks to the personal support of André Malraux, thenMinister of Culture, that they finally disappeared oneafter the other, and building could begin on 3 November1967, made possible by an astonishing mobilisationof local resources through donations and voluntarywork. In this respect, it may rightly be said thatthe church of Sainte Thérèse at Vasperviller is the onlypopular masterpiece of contemporary architecture!Even more remarkable is the church interior,marked by the presence of the ‘Memorial to ThreeSaints’, a powerful wrought-iron sculpture, rigid andcold, which by means of the axe, the rope and thegas nozzle evokes the sinister ‘Nacht und Nebel’ ofthe death camps. For the church of Sainte Thérèse isdedicated to the memory of three local men, less wellknownthan Kolbe or Bonhoeffer, who embody thesacrifice of the martyrs of the three religions of theBook: the priest Georges Meyer, the Mennonite HenriMosimann, and finally Moïse Perkalowitsch, a Jewishnative of Sarrebourg. At Vasperviller, their memorydetermined the very architecture of the church. It engenderedthe ‘Tower in the Church’, the core, the heartof the whole edifice, like a call, an aspiration towardsheaven, standing out against decadence and in favourof renewal.Translation: Charles Johnston