Toulouse: the dome of La Grave at the peak of heritage
The restored chapel of Saint-Joseph de la Grave is the star of Heritage Days this weekend. The opportunity to discover some of the secrets of this major Toulouse site.
Did you know that the cross which surmounts the dome of La Grave, emblematic site of the Pink City, was published towards Jerusalem? Or that the Saint-Joseph de la Grave chapel, which this dome houses, only hosted its first religious service in 1845, 87 years after the first stone of the building was laid in 1758.
The visit to the chapel of Saint-Joseph de la Grave, restored after two years of work and closed yesterday afternoon, holds many surprises. The building will be today and tomorrow the star of Heritage Days in Toulouse. “Guided tours (free) will be organized every hour,” says David Madec, director of La Grave. During the previous open days, in 2017, when the dome was urgently put out of water, 20,000 visitors crowded into the now deconsecrated former chapel and whose management is sedentary by the CHU, owner, in the City of Toulouse.
The building figures prominently on many postcards. Many Toulouse residents have a family member born in the nearby maternity ward or baptized in the chapel. But much can be learned when visiting this magnificent building of impressive height and proportions.
A visit rich in history, art, architecture and anecdotes
“It is one of the rare religious buildings in Toulouse built on a central plan, with an ambulatory around the choir”, specifies Lydie Lanaspèze, architect of the City of Toulouse, “its restoration involved many trades, roofers, craftsmen, specialists in painted decorations, locksmithing or furniture, under the direction of Pierre-Yves Caillault, chief architect of Historic Monuments, with the scenographer Philippe Maffre”.
An interactive touch table located at the entrance to the choir allows you to learn more about the history of the dome, the long construction of which has seen several successive architects (Nelli, Delor de Masbou, Villeneuve). In the ambulatory, short films bring to life some historical figures from the old hospital, which since the Middle Ages welcomed plague victims, then poor people, old people, orphaned children, mental patients and prostitutes in this outlying site on the left bank of Garonne.
“Tablets installed in the confessionals make it possible to go further, thanks to the videos of specialists or witnesses”, comments Marie Bonnabel, curator of the heritage of the City of Toulouse, “the history of this monument is totally linked to that of the Hospice de la Grave, whose birth dates back much further than the dome, to the 12the century “. The sacristy houses magnificent reliquaries and everyday objects, such as a doll or an old satchel.
A public garden will be built in 2023-2024 (5 million euros financed by the City) between the dome and rue du Pont-Saint-Pierre, announced Mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc.
Proposed projects Toulouse escaped
Still on the site of La Grave, in the refectory of the hospital with windows overlooking the Bazacle, don’t miss the “Toulouse sur Garonne” exhibition (entry and free guided tours during the Heritage Days on September 17 and 18, exhibition until January 2, 2023) proposed by the town hall of Toulouse, the Maison de l’Architecture and the Municipal Archives. Thanks to striking architectural models and various documents (drawings, interactive website urban-hist.toulouse.fr), we discover several projects, realized or not, imagined for Toulouse, from 1960 to today. And in particular those of the motorways on the banks of the Garonne, the underground car park of La Daurade or the aerial car park with six levels in the Paul-Feuga alleys, fortunately we escaped. The exhibition does not evoke the future and for example the City of Arts that the City plans to develop in the classified part of the hospital of La Grave.