Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp

In 1950 Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier designed the pilgrimage church of Notre Dame de Haut, located in Rochamp, France. Le Corbusier's patron for the building, Father Courturier, believed that an architect could best design an effective expression of spiritual consciousness if given the utmost in creative freedom. Le Corbusier's unique creation at Rochamp reflects Courturier's artistic latitude, exhibiting an uncoventional synthesis of iconography, architecture, and sculpture. Shaped like a great ship, the church incorporates the ideas of Noah's Ark, Saint Peter's ship, and the architects's own love of the sea.