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Origin and history

The Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc church, located in the Fuon-Cauda district of Nice, is a Catholic building marked by an original architecture combining futurism and Art Deco. Its construction, begun in 1913, was first entrusted to the architect of Nice Louis Castel, who realized the foundations and a crypt before the works were interrupted by the First World War and his death. Launched in 1926 under the direction of the Parisian architect Jacques Droz, the construction site finished in 1933, integrating technical innovations such as the reinforced concrete veil for its three large ovoid cupolas and eight secondary cupolas.

The bold church structure, with its 64-metre bell tower evoking a Paschal candle, was designed to impress with its interior volume and contrasting lines. Initially, the cupolas had to be covered with copper plates, but budgetary constraints prevented this. The interior frescoes, painted between 1934 and 1935 by Eugene Klementieff, are inspired by Russian cubism, Orthodox icons and the Quattrocento, adding a unique artistic dimension to the building. Ranked a historical monument in 1992, the church also received the "Twentieth Century Heritage" label and was restored in 2009.

The basement of the church once housed the Jeanne-d'Arc cinema, accessible by 7 rue Charles-Péguy, testifying to the multifunctionality of religious spaces at that time. The pioneering use of reinforced concrete, studied by engineers Louis Pelnard-Considère and Albert Caquot, and executed by Thorrand, illustrates the technical innovation of the interwar period. Today, the church is nicknamed "the meringue" because of its white colour and remains an architectural symbol of Nice, combining modernity and spirituality.

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