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Saint-Esprit Church
Religious building, Listed or registered (CNMHS), Historic site and monument
in Saint-Esprit
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The original church was located on the site of the present hospital, floodable and not very favourable for the establishment of a town.
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Before 1790, it was transferred to the foothills of Morne-Rouge, to the right of the present church. Having become too small, it was moved forward on the front and its two side galleries were lengthened in 1827.
Significantly damaged by the earthquake of January 11th 1839, the church was rebuilt in the very centre of the new town, in its present location, on a land donated in 1840 by the contractor Perriollat. The reconstruction was completed in 1857 with the addition of a bell tower. In...Before 1790, it was transferred to the foothills of Morne-Rouge, to the right of the present church. Having become too small, it was moved forward on the front and its two side galleries were lengthened in 1827.
Significantly damaged by the earthquake of January 11th 1839, the church was rebuilt in the very centre of the new town, in its present location, on a land donated in 1840 by the contractor Perriollat. The reconstruction was completed in 1857 with the addition of a bell tower. In 1855, Father François Fauveau, who became chaplain of the Ulm ship during the Crimean campaign, sent to Saint-Esprit, his former parish, a bell named La Sébastopol, melted in Caucasus in 1849.
Following the cyclone of 1905, the church preserved the character of the Martinican buildings of the 18th century. The building, of baroque inspiration, nevertheless presents on the facade of the church the will to integrate the traditional religious elements in a homogeneous whole.
This construction underwent important transformations after the cyclones of 1951 and 1962, the style of its bell tower was modified and its elevation considerably reduced.
The church benefited from a restoration campaign in the 2000s.
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