麻豆传媒映画

When he was a kid, Luc Corlou毛r was taken with his uncle in the wee hours of the morning to deliver milk on doorsteps across Tarn-et-Garonne. The road to L茅ojac, a village of 1,200 people along the way, had them driving on the D70.鈥淓very time we would drive by the church, he would tell a different story as to what happened. There had been a blaze with many deaths. It was bombarded by Germans during the war. It was haunted,鈥� he said.

鈥淚 bought a motorbike years later and went on to visit it,鈥� he added.

He eventually became a writer and released two books about it, deciphering what really happened. Mr Corlou毛r is the expert on the church of Sainte-The虂re虁se-de-l'Enfant-Je虂sus, also known as the 脡glise inachev茅e des Farguettes (unfinished church des Farguettes) because it was never finished.

The vision from the road in 2025 is the same as in Mr Corlouer鈥檚 childhood in the 1960s. What lies is a skeleton of concrete, an open-sky roofing framework that is slowly eroding and where ivy and thorns have crept in.

Sainte-The虂re虁se-de-l'Enfant-Je虂sus is the story of the delusion of grandeur of l鈥橝bb茅 Garibaud, a local abbot who wished to gift L茅ojac with a basilica worthy of its stature, as well as the inexorable fate of churches faced with dechristianization.It was meant to replace the parish of Saint-Symphorien, the 800-year-old building only a hundred metres further away on the D70.

Sainte-The虂re虁se-de-l'Enfant-Je虂sus is intricately linked with Saint-Symphorien, the modest church that was given to the village in 1215. It was destroyed, rebuilt several times and expected to be transferred elsewhere countless other times.

The latest such project was reported in 1865. It was to be rebuilt in the town centre of L茅ojac but the local bishop rejected it. Over the following decades, it became almost a forlorn building.

Enter Garibaud who, four months after being asked to organise masses at Saint- Symphorien in 1927, rounded up locals and stirred their conviction that they needed a new religious building.

It should be a basilica as magnificent as Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire and Sainte-Germaine in Lourdes and Pibrac, west of Toulouse, Abb茅 Garibaud envisioned. The church deemed it ludicrous.

A tall and charismatic man, Garibaud went on a quest to convince locals they deserved such a building. He spent years selling goodies and set up a parochial tax to raise funds. In 1936, the church cut some slack and hired an engineer with locals for manpower.

The church, which would never reach the status of a basilica, was built from 1937 to August 1938 and interrupted during World War Two.

This is when it gets murkier. Mr Corlou毛r said that, in essence, Garibaud looked toward Nazi Germany for funds. When the war stopped, locals made him pay the price for collaboration and sidelined it. The church was never to be completed.

鈥淵ou see over there, above the trees, the tower bell of my unfinished church? This is my penance,鈥� said Garibaud from his retirement house in Montbeton, west of Montauban.

He died in 1950.

It is sometimes compared to the Sagrada Familia, mainly because the basilica is seen as an unfinished work.鈥淯ntil proven otherwise, it has been under constant construction since 1882 whereas Sainte-The虂re虁se-de-l'Enfant-Je虂sus was stopped,鈥� said Mr Corlou毛r.

鈥淭his church has the stamp of an unfinished, unconsecrated church, a church that is not. There is shame, the feeling of having been fooled, failed,鈥� he added.

The story of this church as well as the whereabouts of Garibaud were compiled in

L茅ojac Autrefois: Le Quercy Autrefois (Le Cormoran, 2019), the first of Mr Corlou毛r鈥檚 books on L茅ojac.

More than 240 people attended the conference he gave months later and where he revealed a miniature version of the church. During a Q&A, many people shared their personal history, relationships and feelings for Sainte-The虂re虁se-de-l'Enfant-Je虂sus. Another book, L茅ojac d'Antan: Le Quercy Autrefois, was released in December 2020, compiling new information provided by locals.

Driving along the D70 nowadays, people see a brand-new entrance gate and a clean gravel entrance. One sign reads: L鈥櫭塯lise Inachev茅e (The unfinished church)..

Sainte-The虂re虁se-de-l'Enfant-Je虂sus was bought by local entrepreneur Laurent Rotiel for 鈧�35,000. He said in 2023 that he would spend 鈧�200,000 on renovations.

The church, like many around France which are not destroyed, is now used for non-religious events. Many have new functions, including one hosting a gym club. L鈥櫭塯lise Inachev茅e offers a location for corporate events, conferences, seminars and weddings.

A few metres away, the 脡glise de Le虂ojac is still standing. Parishioners continued to go there after World War Two ended, while the church鈥檚 arch enemy was visited by urban explorers.

Mr Corlou毛r sees it as another revengeful sign of history.

Sunday masses were stopped in 2009 but activities continue with the nearby village of Saint-Martial, and prayers and spiritual walks are also held off and on.

The miniature version of what Sainte-The虂re虁se-de-l'Enfant-Je虂sus wished to become is open for contemplation. At 脡glise de Le虂ojac!