Exterior view
by LEBAS, Louis Hippolyte, Photo
The return of the Bourbons after Napoleon’s fall triggered a return to earlier ways in architecture, as elsewhere. Church building, for example, resumed apace after years of suppression.
The small church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette was constructed by Louis-Hyppolite Lebas between 1823 and 1836. Its portico of Corinthian columns develops the model of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule by Chalgrin with great verticality and depth. In the interior, however, the verticality and introduction of a clear story above the Ionic colonnade is closer to the early Christian model. The coffered ceiling recalls Roman ceilings of the Renaissance, such as the one in Lateran.
The photo shows the portico of the church.