Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Chartrons Temple is an ancient Protestant place of worship built in 1835 in the eponymous Bordeaux district. He replaced a first oratory established in 1776 in a cellar, then an aborted temple project designed in 1788 by Louis Combes, interrupted by the Revolution. After decades of uncertainty, its construction was made possible in 1832 thanks to joint funding from the Protestant community, the city and the state, on the plans of the architect Armand Corcelles.

The neoclassical building is distinguished by its ion column portico and its pediment decorated with a Bible open to clouds. Inside, a single vaulted nave in the middle of a hanger leads to an apse, while a stand supported by Corinthian columns occupies the background. The organ, installed around 1886 by Gaston Maille, was restored in the 1960s. The temple, disused in the 1970s, was listed as a historical monument in 1975.

After decades of use as a reserve for Bordeaux museums, the temple reopens in 2019 for contemporary exhibitions, marking its heritage conversion. Its architecture, marked by the use of the Bourg and Langoiran stone, reflects the classical canals advocated by Corcelles, also author of the synagogue of Bordeaux. The bas-relief of the facade and the pulpit carved by the elder Lamarque are the only notable decorative elements.

The Chartrons district, historically linked to the wine trade, influenced the establishment of the temple, built on a small plot typical of Bordeaux plots in strips. Its parvis, originally closed by a wrought iron grid, emphasized its integration into a dense urban fabric. The decommissioning of the temple coincides with the decline of its religious use and the rise of the City of Wine, symbolizing the transformation of the neighborhood.

Today owned by the city, the temple illustrates the evolution of religious buildings into cultural spaces. Its inscription as a historical monument in 1975 preserved its architecture, while its reopening in 2019, with the exhibition M E R C I by Gonzalo Borondo, marks a new stage in its history, between Protestant memory and contemporary artistic dynamism.

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