Protestant Temple

Historic site and monument
Religious heritage
Temple
listed
UNESCO World Heritage
Gothic
20th C

Temple protestant, 10 rue Docteur Max Durand Fardel, 03200 Vichy

Carte postale, 1917 — ©Fonds patrimoniaux de Vichy

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Among the countless foreign visitors who flocked to Vichy from the mid-19th century onwards were many Protestants, especially from England, Switzerland, and Alsace.

After practicing their religion in various hotel dining rooms, in 1866, they obtained permission to build a first temple behind the present-day post office; however, this building rapidly outgrew its original scope and was also too far from the spa district. The construction of the current temple was largely financed by spa visitors from the Anglican community as, at the time, the British represented about 40% of Vichy's foreign spa clientele. The project was entrusted to architect Samuel Henriquet, the son of a pastor and already the designer of the temple in Castillon-la-Bataille (Gironde). A enthusiastic follower of the Neo-Gothic style, Henriquet opted here for its late English version, the Perpendicular Gothic Revival style, notably illustrated in the temple's finely ribbed fan-shaped vaults, of which Bath Abbey is one of the finest examples. The temple held its first service on 2nd August 1914. Unfortunately, in the 1960s, the facade was stripped of its gable pediment. Today, the Protestant Temple serves as a reminder of how the thermal baths shaped the city, attracting a cosmopolitan population that has left its mark on Vichy's cultural and architectural history.