Can you believe that this beautiful church, the Église Saint-Jean-l’Évangéliste, was built using a revolutionary material? It’s right here, standing before you. The Église Saint-Jean-l’Évangéliste, built from 1894 to 1904, was the first religious building in France to use reinforced concrete as its primary building material. It was a controversial choice at the time. Many people, including some architects, thought it was too risky! The church’s engineer had to build scale models in the garden to prove that its thin walls and columns really could support the weight of the structure.
The story of the Église Saint-Jean-l’Évangéliste is one of innovation, overcoming obstacles, and a strong belief in the power of a new technology. The church sits at the foot of Montmartre, at the corner of Rue des Abbesses. It’s a beautiful contrast to the more traditional architecture of the area. It’s not just the building itself that is impressive, but the interior is also quite captivating. The church was part of a movement to modernize church design and bring it into the 20th century with its use of Art Nouveau stained-glass windows and its distinctive terracotta and ceramic tiles. In 2014, the building was classified as a Historic Monument. So you can see that they definitely did a good job in building this church to last! And it makes this one of the truly unique churches in Paris.