The amazing structure of Notre-Dame du Travail !

When the World's Fairs were held on the Champs de Mars (in the late 1800s and 1900), workers who built the pavilions were lodged in the 14th arrondissement. The church of Notre-Dame du Travail was built for them.

The outside is quite ordinary. But the interior looks more like a train station or the Eiffel Tower than a church! The nave is an amazing structure of metal arches and steel pillars. The vaulted wooden ceiling looks like the hull of a ship.

Metal and wood were used for the construction not only for economic reasons but to offer the worker/parishioners a place where they would feel at home, surrounded by materials they were familiar with.

Some of the elements used for the structure were salvaged from the Palais de l'Industrie which was built for the World's Fair of 1855, and from the Fabric Pavilion from the World's Fair of 1900.

Abbé Soulange-Bodin (the parish priest who raised funds to build the church) was an outspoken figure for social Catholicism. He denounced social injustices, defended workers' unions and pushed for the separation of Church and State.

Notre-Dame du Travail, 59 rue Vercingétorix, 75014 Paris

Small street behind the church