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Origin and history

The Victoria Chapel, originally named Saint John Church, was built in Grasse in 1891 under the leadership of the British families Bowes and Booker. Designed by architect George Ashdown Audsley, it adopts an Anglo-Norman style with half-timbered, with a wooden frame evoking a hull of overturned ship. The stained glass windows, funded by the British crown and produced by the London workshop Heaton, Butler & Bayne, represent biblical and allegorical figures, including Saint George, patron saint of Great Britain.

On March 27, 1891, Queen Victoria, while staying in Grasse, inaugurated the church on Good Friday and offered the commemorative stained glass windows. "To the glory of God and in memory of her visit, Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, 1891." The building, nicknamed Victoria Chapel after this visit, became an Anglican place of worship for the British community wintering on the French Riviera during the Belle Époque.

After the 1905 Law on the Separation of Churches and the State, the chapel passed in 1907 under the administration of a British evangelization society, the United Society for the Propagation of Faith. It was gradually used by French Reformed Protestants, especially after World War II. In 1970, the Anglican Association gave it to the Reformed Church of France. Restored in 1997 and 2005, it was listed for historical monuments in January 2021 and today hosts offices and concerts, thanks to its remarkable acoustics.

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