Ronchamp

This commune in Haute-Saône is world-famous for its Notre Dame du Haut Chapel, built between 1953 and 1955 at the top of the Bourlémont Hill, to the plans of the no less famous architect Le Corbusier. In 2011, the Porterie and a convent, designed by the architect Renzo Piano, gave a new dimension to the hill, which, since 2016, has been inscribed, along with 16 other architectural works by Le Corbusier, on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Ronchamp has several hamlets, Grattery, Recologne, Mourière, La Selle, Le Rhien, Le Montchauveau and La Houillère which all revolve around the chapel. Surrounded by forests and leaning against the foothills of the Vosges saônoises, it is also crossed by the river Rahin which rises near the Stalon pass, between the Ballon de Servance and the Ballon d’Alsace.
Ronchamp is also known for its rich mining past. Coal was mined here from the 18th century onwards, fully supporting the local economy and becoming an important industrial town in the 19th century. This period, marked by significant Polish and Italian immigration, shaped a significant architectural and landscape heritage. To preserve the memory of this mining past, the town has kept the headframe of the well Sainte-Marie, a listed Historic Monument, as well as the Marcel-Maulini mine museum, created in 1976 and named after its founder and last doctor of the Ronchamp coal mines.
Like the chapel and the well Sainte-Marie, the wooden school, a Savoyard-inspired building by the architect Henry Jacques Le Même, is another Historic Monument in the commune of Ronchamp. The condition of the building has deteriorated over time and renovation work will be undertaken in the summer of 2021 with the help of the Heritage Foundation and the Bern Mission, among others.
Ronchamp is therefore a town rich in its past and its buildings. The choice of installing a work by Robert Schad in the centre of Ronchamp, close to the Tourist Office, allows a spotlight on Notre-Dame-du-Bas, a neo-Gothic style church built between 1863 and 1864 according to the architect Jean-Baptiste Colard.

Municipality of Ronchamp
www.ronchamp.fr