Contemporary churches in the French department of Pas-de-Calais (1945-2000)

The contemporary religious patrimony is hardly studied. Yet, in the department of Pas-de-Calais alone, the inventory of the churches rebuilt or built after 1945 yields a figure of sixty-nine buildings. Touched by the destructions caused by World War 2, transformed by the demographic explosion, this department was a particularly active site for the construction of church buildings. The study of this rich heritage reveals the various architectural tendencies that have co-existed or followed each other all through this half century, ranging from tradition to modernity. It allows to grasp the relations between lay architecture and religious architecture, between architecture and fine arts but also to measure the impact of the evolutions of the liturgy on the construction of churches.