A Night at the Monastery

Building:  Sainte Marie de La Tourette

Architect: Le Courbusier

Location:  near Lyon, France

Dates:       1956 - 1960

Use:           Dominican Monastery

Style:         Late Modernist

---

(sketch view from inside the courtyard area)

---

Traveling south along the Swiss border from Ronchamp, we made one last Le Corbusier stop before heading back home (as we would call it "home" for the next four months) at the Dominican Monastery called La Tourette.

It was a nice, crisp early autumn day (actually it was technically still summer) and after driving through small town after small town, we turned onto a long tree-lined driveway that seemed to lead to nowhere... and suddenly there the concrete monastery appeared.

We attended a lecture (about something... the building probably), and then was treated to a nice vegetarian dinner of... something... in the cafeteria. Most of the items we were able to figure out, but the last one... that one stumped us all - was it tofu? Was it cheese? Was it egg whites (don't know if that is considered "meat" or not)? Nevertheless, we ended the night retiring to each of our own little Le Corbusier concrete sleeping rooms (even our professor and his wife had to split into two separate rooms - it is a monastery after all). 

Let's talk about these sleeping rooms... there is no comfort whatsoever. Of course, there isn't supposed to be. It is a narrow long cell - all concrete, mind you - that (from memory) seemed about 5' wide and perhaps 20' long, lit by one single light bulb (maybe the light bulb part is an exaggeration). Once inside the door, there is a little cubby shelf against the wall, and a small sink right next to that. Next up is a small single-mattress metal-framed bed with a small wooden writing desk taking the end of the line. At the other end of the room is a small balcony, of which I did not dare to venture out onto (I admit it, the whole place kind of gave me the willies). 

(this is the outside view from the driveway of the sleeping room and balconies)

Down the concrete hall, in near darkness, is the concrete community bathroom... the unisex community bathroom, where only a couple of us dared to take a shower. I was one of those who dared, and I prayed the entire time.

All in all, I was glad I got to experience a visit and a stay at a Le Corbusier building. I may have been creeped out when darkness fell, but in daylight, it felt quite spiritual. If I was a monk, I'd totally seek this place out.