A Gothic chapel-cloister-cathedral complex is being built near Bordeaux using medieval techniques, employing local and marginalized labor, funded partly publicly.
Newsroom, July 17, 2025, Gaudium Press – It will be a chapel, a cloister, and later a large building in the style of a cathedral. It remains a mystery how, after having reached the heights of Gothic, humanity returned to the beautiful yet earlier Romanesque. This only seems explainable by the influence of the regression represented by the Renaissance, which once again highlighted doctrines and lifestyles overcome by Christianity.
But the world has always longed for the heights of Gothic, saudades that became very visible in the 19th century with the rediscovery of the Middle Ages at that time.
However, Gothic is like that paradise to which humanity always wants to return. Temples like those currently built by the Heralds of the Gospel, much visited by tourists, faithful, and pilgrims, confirm the modern relevance of what once constituted a peak.
Now AFP reports that near Bordeaux, in western France, a Gothic complex is being built using the very medieval techniques.
Indeed, it will not only be an 11th‑century chapel, [but] later a cloister with different galleries and conventual constructions as if it were an 11th‑century priory, explains Valery Ossent, the civil engineer responsible for the project. “And in a second phase, the great Gothic building that will recall the cathedrals of that era.” The project is long‑term and will take decades, since work will be done using “ancient techniques.”
The project, which employs unemployed people from the region, as well as disabled persons and former convicts, is financed 10 percent with public funds, and the remaining €300,000 annual budget by contributions from companies and individuals.
Compiled by Adele Wong.
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