VISIT OF POPE LEO XIV TO LOURDES

Architecture

Design

News

On the occasion of Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic visit to Lourdes, Wilmotte & Associés designed the stage and liturgical furnishings for the major celebration presided over by the Holy Father in the Prairie of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes.

On Sunday, September 27, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass at the heart of one of the Sanctuary’s most emblematic landscapes.

To host this exceptional event, Wilmotte & Associés conceived a restrained and understated temporary architecture, designed to accompany the celebration and the gathering of pilgrims without leaving a lasting mark on the landscape.

Welcoming the exceptional

Set within the Prairie, the stage was conceived as a temporary structure in which architecture, scenography and liturgy come together as a coherent whole.

Its design is organized around large arches that structure the celebration space, a luminous cross, and a deliberately restrained treatment of surfaces and materials.

The liturgical furnishings, specially designed by Wilmotte & Associés for the celebration, extend this same pursuit of unity and simplicity. The altar, ambo, papal chair and holy water font form part of a shared composition, conceived both at the scale of the large gathering and that of the liturgical gesture.

Together, these elements create a distinctive setting while maintaining a constant dialogue with the Prairie and the landscape of the Sanctuary.

An architecture designed to disappear

The temporary nature of the project lies at the heart of its conception.

The installation responds to an exceptional moment in the life of the Sanctuary, while respecting a site in which the landscape is a fundamental component of the Lourdes experience.

Once the event is over, the architecture disappears, allowing the landscape to reclaim its place.