L'EGLISE SAINT JEAN

Closing the perspective of the Boulevard de la Rochelle, the main commercial artery of the city, the Saint-Jean church suffered the consequences of three successive wars and saw its construction spread over more than sixty years. Its imposing dimensions hide from view the industrial district that developed in the 19th century, particularly around the brewing activity. In the middle of the 19th century, Notre-Dame parish had an annex in the brewery district, which was in full expansion at the time. The idea of transforming it into a church germinated in 1869. The following year, the project was studied by the departmental architect Charles Demoget, but his sketches for a neo-gothic building were controversial. It was not until 1875, when a fourth parish was created in Bar-le-Duc under the name of Saint-Jean, that construction of the church began, under the direction of Ernest Birglin. Between 1875 and 1880, only the apse and transept were erected, in a style mixing neo-Romanesque and neo-Byzantine. These two styles are particularly evident in the use of arcades and semi-circular arches and simple rosettes. The building site was reopened in 1933 by the architect Royer, who built the nave until 1939. The building was not finally completed until after the war.