Our Lady of Lourdes church is an architectural gem that has retained its air of meditative calm despite sitting bang in the middle of Tiruchi’s commercial district. Built over 1890-1903 and maintained by the Fathers of Society of Jesus (The Jesuits), the church is situated within the campus of St. Joseph’s Autonomous College. The Catholic church, modelled on the shrine in France which was built in 1864, is a fine example of the blend of European and Indian sensibilities within the framework of Gothic architecture.
Among the many special features of the Lourdes church, whose steeple is visible for miles around the city, are the sculptures of St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, St. Peter and St. John de Britto along with that of Sacred Heart of Jesus at the centre of the tower. Colourful windows done in the stained glass style depict the life of Jesus Christ, Jesuit saints and evangelists.
Looking at the building today, with its distinctive off-white and maroon exterior that stands at a height of 220 feet and has 120 turrets, it is awe-inspiring to note that the church is completely indigenous in construction despite its French flair.
The back story Finding out more about the effort that went into the building of the Our Lady of Lourdes church is not an easy task. The original building plans are kept in the Jesuit Archives at Shenbaghanur, Kodaikanal, and are generally not accessible to the public.
According to an article by Fr. A. Joseph S.J. in the Tamil souvenir magazine (available online) published to celebrate the church’s centennial (1896-1998), the rector Reverend Father Leo Barbier S.J., (1893-1903) was the first person to moot the idea of the church. He also credits St. Joseph’s College principal Joseph Pei (1884-93), with encouraging the Tirunelveli-born master mason Dhanam Savaritmuthu to take charge of constructing the Our Lady of Lourdes church.
The building work started after around two years of preparation, when Savarimuthu is thought to have first learned from the fathers how to read the plans and also incorporate Christian symbolism in the building.
As an acknowledgement of his services, Savarimuthu has been buried in the crypt below the altar of the church. This honour is usually reserved for the priests who have served the Jesuit college and mission in the area.
In 1838, French Jesuit missionaries came to Madurai. The missionary Fr. Ferdinand Celle S.J. built the Gothic Sacred Heart church in Idaikattur, Sivaganga district in 1894, and is also thought to have had a role in the Tiruchi church.
Some other nuggets of information from the article indicate that the church site was marshy and water-logged as it was situated in an ‘ahali’ (moat) meant to encircle the old Tiruchi fort. The foundation was reinforced and raised by pumping concrete into granite-lined holes of 15-20 ft depth (also known as the open caisson technique).
The 8ft cross atop the steeple weighs 73 kilos, and also acts as a lightning conductor for the building. As many as 50 sharp nails on the cross prevent birds from soiling it. It was brought down and gilded in 1996 and reinstalled after three months.
Science behind art
A further search for the science behind the church’s construction leads us to the National Institute of Technology Tiruchirapalli (NITT), where third-year students of the Department of Architecture had researched the building in 2002.
Detailed hand-drawn pen-and-ink plates describe how the Our Lady of Lourdes church was built to reflect both the Gothic style of European structures and suit the local requirements for daily worship.
“Our Lady of Lourdes church shows the talent of Indian craftsmen; it shows that they could build any structure, no matter what the style, using local materials,” says Professor Joseph Fernando, who guided the group of 9-10 students led by Keerthi Sahu that worked on the church as part of a NASA (National Association of Students of Architecture) contest submission in 2002, in a telephonic interview.
Professor Fernando, who is now principal, Sigma College of Architecture at Kanyakumari, added that the church was worthy of being declared a national treasure.
Among the facts the study highlights are the ways Savarimuthu and his team worked around the constraints posed by the site and local weather. The church has been built using the squinch method – filling in the upper angles of a square room to prepare a base for it to receive an octagonal or spherical dome. The master mason had also taken the help of corbels (a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a super-incumbent weight), commonly seen in Hindu temples, to construct the steeple.
To maximise the usage of space, flying buttresses (side-supporting structures) were fused with masonry walls. The study also shows how fenestrations (holes) in the steeple’s walls help it to withstand the wind and aid air circulation. The walls of the cruciform structure are built on a base of granite. The rest of the structure is built up with bricks and lime mortar. Terracotta tiles have been used extensively as well.
Architectural ingenuity aside, Our Lady of Lourdes church remains faithful to its original purpose as a place of worship for 13 parishes in Tiruchi to date, and can accommodate up to 6000 people. “Students, tourists, shoppers and regular worshippers – we can see people from all walks of life slip in during the day for prayer and reflection,” says Father S. Arul Oli S.J., the pastor of the church. “Our minds are like the ceiling fans – no matter how far our life spins away, the heart will always return to God.”
