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Origin and history

The church of the Heart-Immaculate-de-Marie, located 23 rue de Verdun in Suresnes, was built between 1907 and 1908 by architect Édouard Bérard. It replaces the former church of Saint-Leufroy, destroyed in 1906 because of its old age. The latter, dating back to the 10th century and reworked several times, was the principal place of Catholic worship in Suresnes until the early 20th century. It housed relics of St.Leufroy and works of art, including 27 paintings now missing.

The decision to demolish the church of Saint-Leufroy was taken in a marked anticlericalism, after years of neglect and arson in 1904. The municipality, led by Mayor Victor Diederich, opted for its destruction despite the protests of the archbishop of Paris. A controversy arose when the bells of the old church were melted to erect a bust of Émile Zola, symbol of the tensions between lay and religious.

The present church, of sober style typical of the Parisian suburbs of the time, was consecrated in 1911. It houses a statue of the Virgin with Child (1829) by Jean-Pierre Cortot, originally destined for Mount Valérien, as well as twenty historical stained glass windows by Henri Brémond and Henri Carot. These stained glass windows celebrate the Virgin Mary, St.Leufroy, and local figures such as Isabelle de France or Henry IV. The building is located in a parish town including school, festive hall and presbytery.

The Church of the Heart-Immaculate-of-Marie thus embodies a transition between the medieval heritage of Suresnes, marked by the abbey Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the pilgrimage of Mount Valérien, and the modernity of the twentieth century. Its history reflects the political, religious and urban upheavals of the region, between the destruction of the ancient heritage and the affirmation of a new Catholic identity.

Today, the church is part of the dean of Mount Valerian, in the diocese of Nanterre. The historic district where the former church of Saint-Leufroy was located was razed in the 1970s to give way to a shopping centre, erasing the last physical traces of this millennial past. Only the street names and stained glass windows of the present church perpetuate its memory.

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