Church of St Joseph of Beauregard

THE CATHEDRAL

OF LA FENSCH

In 1863, the Brothers of the Christian Schools started building a chapel inspired by Metz Cathedral on the site of Beauregard Hospital. In a neo-Gothic style, it was completed in 1870. Thanks to a donation from Madame Laydecker, the monumental bell tower built at the end of the century led to the church being called the “Cathedral of La Fensch”.

FROM BOARDING SCHOOL

TO PARISH

In 1874, the German authorities gave the order to close the boarding school of the Brothers of Christian Schools next to the chapel. Classes were taught in German. The Brothers left Thionville and the chapel was used as a place of worship by the inhabitants of Beauregard. Nevertheless, it remained part of the parish of Thionville.

In 1897, Marie-Louise Neron, the widow of Laydecker, bought the building and undertook renovation work. The parish of Beauregard was created on 1 June 1899 and the church was consecrated on 17 September 1899, by Monsignor Félix Korum, Bishop of Trèves.

A JEWEL

OF GOTHIC ART

It was Madame Laydecker who also financed the first five bells blessed in October 1899: Saint Marie, Saint Joseph, Saint Louise, Saint Jean-Baptiste and Saint François. They all come from the Goussel-François foundry in Metz. A sixth bell, with a strike tone in A, was added less than a year later, Saint Ange. It was blessed by Abbot Koch, archpriest of Sierck.

The organ, inaugurated in December 1900, is a Romantic organ with two keyboards and an exceptional tone. Inside this Gothic jewel with its 20 m high nave, you will also find the stained glass windows in the choir, its Stations of the Cross, painted by Jean Engel based on the work of the German painter Friedrich Overbeck, and its high altar in white stone sheltering fifteen small statues in its four stages.