Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The church Our Lady of Wiesberg is a religious building located in Forbach, Moselle department (Great East region). Built between 1965 and 1967, it is distinguished by its bold spiral-shaped architecture, designed by architect Émile Aillaud. The latter imagined a continuous wall of 200 meters long, combining brick and laminated-paste wood frame, creating a singular massing for a place of worship.

The project benefited from the collaboration of colorist Fabio Rieti, who brought his expertise to harmonize the colours of the building. In 2013, the church won the "Heritage du XXe siècle" label, replaced in 2016 by "Architecture contemporaine remarkable", stressing its importance in the modern French architectural heritage. Its integration into the Wiesberg district, marked by the achievements of Émile Aillaud, bears witness to the urban ambitions of the 1960s.

Two books document its history: "Church of Our Lady of Wiesberg and other religious buildings of Forbach" (Louis Muller and Gaston Mauss, 2005) and "A time when the HLM were blue" (Jean-Marie Helwig, 2022), which place the church in the broader context of social and religious constructions of the time.

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