Saint-Pierre, Firminy
church located in Loire, France
Saint-Pierre (English: Saint Peter) is a concrete building in the commune of Firminy, France. The last major work of Le Corbusier, it was started in 1973 and completed in 2006, forty-one years after his death.
History
Designed to be a church in the model city of Firminy Vert, the construction of Saint-Pierre was begun in 1971, six years after Le Corbusier's death in 1965.
Due to local political conflicts it remained stalled from 1975 to 2003, when the local government declared the mouldering concrete ruin an "architectural heritage" and financed its completion. The building was completed by the French architect José Oubrerie, Le Corbusier's student for many years.
It has been used for many different purposes, as a secondary school and as a shelter. As the secularist French state may not use public funds for religious buildings, Saint-Pierre is now used as a cultural venue.
Impact on architecture
In the World Architecture Survey of 2010, by Vanity Fair magazine, the building was ranked as second in the rankings of the top structures built in the twenty-first century, receiving four votes. American deconstructionist architect Peter Eisenman asserted in his response that this building is the most important structure built since 1980.
See also
World Architecture Survey
References
Stefan Simoel.de/international/0,1518,451392,00.html.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Saint-Pierre, Firminy” is church located in Loire, France. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Saint-Pierre, Firminy and church, not as a finished interpretation.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3099270. Authority coordinates are 45.384, 4.286. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973, 2006, 1971 and 1965.
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