Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The church Saint-Charles-Borromée was built between 1856 and 1860 in Joinville-le-Pont, on the plans of the architect Claude Naissant, by the entrepreneur Lucot. Its financing is provided by the commune and an interest-free loan by Mayor Charles Chapsal, whose widow chooses the term in homage to Saint Charles Borromée (1538–1584), cardinal Milanese. It replaced the former chapel Saint-Léonard, destroyed in 1804, and became a parish in 1860, covering the entire communal territory.

Prior to its construction, Joinville-le-Pont (then La Branche-du-Pont-de-Saint-Maur) was one of the few communes in the Seine department without a clean church after 1802. Its inhabitants depended on Saint-Nicolas parish of Saint-Maur. The 1905 law transferred the property from the church to the state, with an inventory carried out on 20 February 1906. In 2011, the association Les Amis de Saint Charles was founded to enhance this heritage.

The architecture is inspired by basilicas, with an apparent structure, arches on columns and a neo-Gothic choir. The furniture includes a path of cross in porcelain (atelier Jean-Marie Gille), paintings by Joseph Nicolas Jouy (1874), and 28 glass windows made by Antoine Lusson (1860) and Lapierre/Tournel (1891–92). A bronze bell of 1852, melted by Neveu Wagner, comes from the former town hall-school.

Since 2014, the adjoining Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes chapel has been home to the Orthodox parish of Sainte-Geneviève-et-Saint-Martin, founded in 1995. This cohabitation illustrates the cultural diversity of the site, while preserving its original Catholic heritage.

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