Saint Thérèse's Church, Port-Saïd, 1948

In 1948, Naoum Shebib acted as architect, structural engineer and contractor for the Saint Thérèse church, in the city of Port Said located on the banks of the Suez Canal. He designed and built this church for the Maronite Christian community.

Description

This warm and welcoming church is covered with a reinforced concrete vault that rests on the ground. This vault forms both the roof and the walls, creating a modern and original architecture mirroring the structure of the building. Since the curvature of the vault connects seamlessly the walls and the roof the harmony of the building remains unfettered.

At the entrance on the main façade, an arcade covers a wide opening where the wall is adorned with lattice-work enhanced by geometric figures.

On each side of the church, light flows inside through large lattice-windows and gives it inner life.

The bell-tower rising into the sky is surmounted by a delicate cross, its straight lines contrasting with the building's rounded form.The geometric decorations adorning the tower are reminder of the lattice-work on the main façade.

The interior walls taking the same curved shape as the external structure, a warm atmosphere fills the entire church.

Construction

Constructing this church represented a great technical challenge at the time. A wooden casing made with thousands of planks was used to build the concrete shell.