Basilica of Our Lady of Peace (Yamoussoukro)

The Basilica of Notre- Dame de la Paix ( German Our Lady of Peace) in Yamoussoukro in the Ivory Coast is approximately 8,000 m² of floor space (including outdoor areas even approximately 30,000 m² of floor space ) one of the largest church building in the world. The Basilica is managed by the Community of the SAC and is located on the territory of the Diocese Diocesan Yamoussoukro, however, is not its cathedral.

History

The first President of Côte d'Ivoire, Félix Houphouët-Boigny appointed in March 1983 his hometown Yamoussoukro as the new capital of the country. Under his leadership, several large construction projects have been there in the subsequent period started, including the construction of a basilica on the model of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The foundation stone was laid on 10 August 1985. After only three years and three months of construction, the church was completed. Officially, the entire building project was paid out of the personal assets of Houphouët- Boigny and has since been maintained by the interest of a Swiss blocked account.

After years of waiting, the Basilica on September 10, 1990 by Pope John Paul II was ordained as part of a trip to Africa, the Holy Mother of God. Reason for the delay was the fact that the Pope his participation in the ceremony of the commitment made ​​dependent to build a hospital in the vicinity of the temple. In fact, however, started with the implementation of this project until ten years later, a university also announced was in 2007 still in the planning phase.

Architecture

Architect of this church is the Lebanese -born Pierre Fakhoury. Although the so-called Basilica structurally oriented at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, there are significant deviations to the original, especially since Notre -Dame-de -la- Paix is essentially a central building, while the Church in Rome clearly corresponds to a Longitudinalbau. Furthermore, the dome is slightly lower than in St. Peter's Basilica. The mounted thereon Cross is larger, so that the basilica has a height of 158.1 m height (see List of tallest church towers in the world ).

With approximately 30,000 m² of floor space, the Basilica of Notre- Dame de la Paix (apart from the dome height ) higher, longer and wider than the model in Rome, which has a covered area of 15,000 m². The actual church building is smaller than St. Peter's Cathedral and offers about 7,000 seats and 11,000 standing places (see St. Peter's Basilica: up to 20,000 people ).

The Basilica of Notre- Dame de la Paix was built of Italian marble. Your windows adorn 7,000 m² glass mosaic windows, which were manufactured in France.

Criticism

Despite her compared to the neighboring states of relative prosperity, Côte d'Ivoire is a developing country with huge social problems in which Catholicism is a minority religion. Therefore, worldwide criticized both human rights groups and many church organizations, the grants for this building, whose construction costs are supposed to have amounted to the equivalent of about 200 million euros. Many spoke of the extravagance of President Houphouët- Boigny, as the money would have been much better invested in the social balance of the debt-ridden state. The protestations of Houphouët- Boigny to have paid the entire construction of the basilica with his private fortune, did not alter the controversy over the justification of such a project.