Église Notre-Dame-Auxiliatrice

Église Notre-Dame-Auxiliatrice rises in Nice as an Art Deco Catholic church beside a school bearing the same name. Its restrained façade uses openwork screens, small stained-glass windows, and sgraffito motifs along the cornices and awnings.

Jules Febvre and Marius Déporta designed the building with reinforced concrete, drawing inspiration from Auguste Perret’s Notre-Dame du Raincy. Work began in May 1924, the foundation stone followed in December 1926, and the completed church received its blessing in May 1933. The Salesians built it as their first church in France, creating both a parish church and a national sanctuary that accommodates up to 1,000 people. During 1943 and 1944, Salesian orphanages in Nice and the Marcel network hid and saved many Jewish children from persecution.

Inside, Eugène Doucet’s life-size Stations of the Cross frescoes line the side walls after a decade of work. A cobalt-blue and gold cross covers 242 square metres of ceiling, while twelve narrative stained-glass panels by Antoine Bessac add colour and light. A statue by Carlo Sarrabezzoles crowns the façade, and the entire church became a protected historic monument in 2017.