Sainte Jeanne d'Arc Church
Louis Castel; Jacques Droz · Nice, France · 1934
Sainte Jeanne d’Arc Church is one of Nice’s most unusual modern religious buildings and a strong example of interwar experimentation with reinforced concrete. Designed by Louis Castel and Jacques Droz, the church replaces traditional stone mass and historical ornament with white sculptural forms, elliptical domes, and a distinctive vertical bell tower. Its curved volumes give the building a soft but futuristic character, closer to early modern structural exploration than to conventional parish architecture. The church is particularly interesting because it uses concrete not simply as a cheaper construction method, but as a way to rethink sacred form, light, and silhouette. The exterior reads almost like a cluster of abstracted shells or inflated vaults, while the interior emphasizes structural rhythm and filtered illumination. In the architectural map of Nice, it creates an important bridge between historic religious traditions and twentieth-century formal invention.