Le Colloque international de Montréal. Partout en Occident, de nombreuses églises, de toutes traditions religieuses, ferment leurs portes faute de fidèles et de célébrants. Ces hauts lieux de nos villes, de nos villages et de nos mémoires sont menacés de disparaître à plus ou moins brève échéance. Le patrimoine ne cesse de s’effriter : près de 2 000 églises fermées en Angleterre ; des milliards d’actifs fonciers inexploités ou perdus aux états-Unis ; plus de 600 églises démolies aux Pays-Bas. Des dizaines de milliers d’églises de Scandinavie, d’Allemagne, de Belgique et de France réclament aussi notre attention, tout comme celles du Québec confrontées, depuis quelques années, à la désaffection constante de leurs paroissiens. Une quarantaine de spécialistes nord-américains et européens analysent les expériences vécues et formulent des propositions concernant l’avenir et la propriété de ces nobles bâtiments, leur vocation et leur usage. Ils évaluent également les défis que posent la planification urbaine et la gestion de tels édifices et explorent de nouvelles approches qui permettront d’assurer la survie des églises dans la cité, en redéfinissant leur vocation communautaire et leur statut au sein de la collectivité. Il s’agit, en somme, de saisir comment l’église peut aujourd’hui redevenir le patrimoine de la collectivité entière. The Montreal International Conference. Throughout the Western world, many churches of all religious traditions are closing their doors due to a lack of worshippers and officiants. These mainstays of our cities and towns and chroniclers of our memories are in danger of disappearing in the somewhat near future. Heritage continues to crumble, with nearly 2,000 churches closed in England, billions of unused or lost land assets in the United States, and more than 600 churches demolished in the Netherlands. Tens of thousands of churches in Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium, and France are also clamoring for our attention, while their Québec counterparts have faced steadily declining parishioners’ interest for the past several years. Forty-odd North American and European specialists share their experiences and make suggestions regarding the future and ownership of these noble buildings, as well as their purpose and use. They also describe the challenges of urban planning and managing such buildings, and explore new approaches that will help churches survive by redefining their purpose and status within the community. In the end, the issue is one of understanding how churches can again become the heritage of the entire community.

Quel avenir pour quelles églises ? / What future for which churches?

Arts & Photography

Noppen, Luc

Morisset, Lucie K.

Coomans, Thomas

Architecture

Presses de l'Universite du Quebec

À l’heure de la désaffection des traditions religieuses historiques, les couvents, les monastères et les abbayes qui émaillent les paysages de nos villes et de nos campagnes sont menacés de déshérence?: les communautés qui les ont bâtis, habités et qui en ont assuré la survie n’ont plus les moyens d’assumer leur charge patrimoniale. En même temps que s’impose l’affection citoyenne pour ces vastes ensembles et leurs jardins, ceux-ci sont de plus en plus convoités À des fins de développement. Que faire de cet héritage riche et lourd?? Cet ouvrage collectif regroupe des contributions qui apportent des pistes de réflexion sur les problèmes de la sécularisation, de la réaffectation ou de la gouvernance d’anciens ensembles conventuels. Il vise également À nourrir la discussion sur les implications financières, juridiques, urbanistiques et mémorielles du changement de vocation des couvents et de leur mise en valeur. In this time of abandonment of historical religious traditions, the convents, monasteries, and abbeys that punctuate our rural and urban landscapes are in danger of becoming escheated properties. The communities who built them, lived in them, and have thus far ensured their survival can no longer bear the burden of their heritage value. These magnificent properties and their gardens are increasingly the objects of society’s affection, and yet at the same time are more and more coveted by real estate developers. What is to be done with such a rich and weighty legacy? This collective publication brings together contributions that provide ways of thinking about the issues of secularization, adaptive reuse, or the governance of former religious buildings. It also intends to contribute to the debate on the financial, legal, urbanistic, and memorial implications of the new destinies of convents and their redevelopment

Des couvents en héritage / Religious Houses: A Legacy

History

World

Christian monasteries and convents, built throughout Europe for the best part of 1,500 years, are now at a crossroads. This study attempts to understand the sacred architecture of monasteries as a process of the tangible and symbolic organisation of space and time for religious communities. Despite the weight of seemingly immutable monastic tradition, architecture has contributed to developing specific religious identities and played a fundamental part in the reformation of different forms of religious life according to the changing needs of society. The cloister is the focal point of this book because it is both architecture, a physically built reality, and a metaphor for the religious life that takes place within it. Life Inside the Cloister also addresses the afterlife and heritagisation of monastic architecture in secularised Western society.

Life Inside the Cloister: Understanding Monastic Architecture―Tradition, Reformation, Adaptive Reuse (KADOC Studies on Religion, Culture and Society)

Europe

Leuven University Press

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Books by Coomans, Thomas