A change of use in France especially rare: ex catholic churchdesecrated in 2018 and sold after losing many followers, turned into ten social residences. “Only a few funerals were held there a year”stated to French media a woman from the former parish, who was invited to the opening yesterday (15/6), “delighted with how she has been transformed, with the life she is returning”.
The configuration of the former church of Sainte-Thérèse of Bétoncourt (in Doux, eastern France) with its raised nave accessible by a small external staircase, dictated its transformation.
“The large main church on the first floor allowed five duplexes with balconies to be built there. The lower part facing outside has become the ground floor of four apartments with a terrace and housed the chapel, which was sized to form a 2-room apartment there.”, according to Néolia, social enterprise for housing. As for the bell tower, it now houses the technical equipment.
The church had been built in 1953 in a working-class neighborhood near the Peugeot factory in the Sosso region, amid the large influx of mostly Catholic workers before and after the Second World War.
Among the tenants, the Benmadi couple exchanged a three-room apartment in Néolia for a four-bedroom apartment of 82 sq.m. with a terrace of 50 sq.m. “We were fine where we lived before, but here we are losing prestige!”, assessed Soraya Benmadi, despite the “more expensive rent, but that is understandable”.
Source: News Beast
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