The Manifesto of Modern Religious Architecture. The Mountain Chapel by Alberto Sartoris in Lourtier

Abstract

The realization of a sacred space represented a unicum in Alberto Sartoris’ career and, at the same time, it remained closely interrelated to his reflections on the architectural system throughout his long academic and professional activity. In this sense, the events linked to the realization of the Chapelle de Notre-Dame du Bon-Conseil, built in Lourtier, Switzerland, in 1932, were a precious testimony of the coherent application by Sartoris of the constructive and moral principles linked to functional architecture, of which he himself was a tenacious supporter since the early 1930s. After completion, this building was at the center of a fierce controversy, as it was considered scandalous and the architect accused of Bolshevism by the critics of the time. Renouncing most of the theories fiercely supported by Sartoris, this chapel was subject to a radical transformation during the 1950s and 1960s, in search of what has been repeatedly, erroneously defined as mere “architectural embellishment”. The aim of this study is to highlight the activity of Sartoris- architect through the study of the events related to the realization of that Manifesto of modern religious architecture, born in a mountain context, that of Lourtier, not far from the place where Sartoris grew up and lived until his death.