Church du Saint-Esprit (Holy Spirit) in the east of Paris looks exotic: red brick building with a tall bell tower, more like a cell tower. More unusual church looks from the inside - it is a genuine Byzantine Empire in Paris.

The local area - one of those where in 1860 was rapid urbanization, growing population, there is an urgent need for new places of worship. In 1928, Archbishop Cardinal Dubois decided to build a temple here, entrusting the project to the architect Paul Turno - he was known erection in France and Morocco iconic buildings using reinforced concrete. In 1929 the church was ready to vault, which played the role of chapels throughout the subsequent construction.

Also in 1929, Cardinal Dubois died. Paris Archdiocese received Bishop Jean Verdier, who was remembered as "the bishop of a hundred churches." He was a man of immediate action and enormous energy. When it was adopted and implemented a whole program of construction in Paris, dozens of churches, chapels, hospitals, kindergartens. Part of this program was the Holy Spirit Church, completed in 1935.

Paul Turno joined in this project unconnected: the architecture of Byzantine churches, especially the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Constantinople, with the brutal aesthetics of reinforced concrete. The interior walls and vaults of the temple have not been any decoration, the patina of time on concrete surfaces makes them look as if the church is carved in the rock. Therefore, the interior has a distinct resemblance to the ancient Christian catacomb churches.

The main nave is covered by a huge dome (22 meters in diameter, the height of the top point - 33 meters). The use of reinforced concrete to create such a complex design in those days was a real engineering feat.

For interior decoration Paul Turno attracted great artists. Stoyanov of the Cross fulfilled Georges Desvale, mural - Robert Albert Genik, Raymond Vir, Henri de Maistre and many other masters. The combination of a rough concrete surface with huge polychrome frescoes makes an incredible impression. One of the most amazing works of the church - the relief work of Jacques Martin's "The Death of St. Joseph" Jesus takes the last breath of a dying man, holding out the palm of Our Lady, to the last time his hands touch his counsel. This plot is portrayed by painters and sculptors rarely.

Here, in the church, the bust of Cardinal Verdier, whose energy ascended the temple. At a bare concrete wall says, "Cardinal hundred churches - the people of Paris."